The United Negro College Fund's slogan since 1972, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” was changed for the first time this week as the College Fund teamed up with Y&R advertising agency. The new slogan will read, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but a wonderful thing to invest in.” This new public service advertising campaign is a small tweak from the original slogan but I think has much greater meaning and will gather new investors, as this is the purpose of the new slogan.

Pictures of young students are featured in ads where they are staring back at the person looking upon the advertisement with the new slogan featured at the bottom, as well as other phrases such as “What if the future of kids was a stock you could invest in?” And “It's never too early to invest in a good thing.” The overall goal of the campaign is to stress the importance of investing in university education for young African-Americans.

Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and chief executive of the College Fund believes the campaign is relevant for today. The fund is not a charity anymore but an investment in individual students as well as an investment in our nation's work force.  The new ads are directed at previous donors to the College Fund, graduates of historically black colleges and universities according to David Sable, global chief executive of Y&R.  The College Fund has previously discussed the concept of investment but Peggy Conlon, president and chief executive of the Ad Council, said the new advertising represented the first time the College Fund had quantified the impact of investments in education. This campaign may be very successful because it is portraying that the investments people make will not just help the students receiving the donations, but it will cycle back to help the investor and society as a whole, by creating a better workforce.