[Lyric] Manifesto (Miami Ad School)

On the glorious battlefield known as the "advertising industry," where we the troops are charged with shaping culture by wielding that which breaks through and reinvents, you'll be hard pressed to find a single soul who'll argue with the fact that Typical just doesn't cut it. It's a universal truth, written everywhere we look. Rosser Reeves once said that "to be Typical is to be invisible." Gossage wrote that "the path to irrelevance goes through Typical Town." And who can forget when Alex Bogusky muttered to himself at a urinal in Cannes, "If you want to suck an egg, reach into the jar marked Typical." But while it's easy to say "we're not your Typical portfolio school," it's quite another matter to prove it. So we'll do both.

Here's the part where we say it. We'll start with "we're not your Typical portfolio school." Then we'll say "there's nothing Typical about us." Next there's "Typical doesn't think the way we think," and "Typical doesn't do things the way we do." Moreover, "Typical doesn't know anything about social media, it doesn't understand music, it can't write a sitcom or produce a web film and it's about as iSavvy as your grandmother." And to be sure, "Typical is completely lost when it comes making brands popular in popular culture—it doesn't post, upload, seed, blog, tweet or Digg. Hell, Typical doesn't even know what Digg is. But we know all of this stuff. Which is why we're anything but Typical."

Here's the part where we prove it. Typical is not partnered with a network of proven thought leadership. We are. (Does Crispin Porter + Bogusky ring a bell?) Typical hasn't compiled a roster of guest-instructor rockstars from the world's best communications agencies and culturists. We have. Typical doesn't invest in a technology infrastructure that can put pupils face to face with instructors all over the world (literally) at the flick of a Polycom remote. We do. Typical hasn't made it possible for students to gain valuable work experience all over the globe—in places like Dubai, Shanghai and Amsterdam. With our Quarter Away program, we most certainly have.

And here's the part where we give Typical some credit. Typical does produce graduates. And technically speaking, those graduates often show up ready to work with perfectly decent portfolios. So you can go with Typical if you want, and you might even have some success. But the problem is Typical doesn't seem to realize that today the industry is calling for more than graduates with good books. It's calling for fame generators, trendsetters and game changers. People we like to think of as "Pop Culture Engineers." Which is why, in an effort to put our money directly where our mouth is (also not Typical), we're calling our program the School of Pop Culture Engineering from Miami Ad School. See that? Even our name isn't Typical. The only thing left to do now is give this thing an ending that isn't Typical either. So here goes: Chocolate chip cookies kill kittens.