Viron Counselors Network ad

The ad for Viron Counselors Network was an assignment for COMM 385 "Broadcast Writing" class with Donna Smith in the spring semester of 2009 at Ferris State University. It was written by the Dozerfleet founder on Monday, May 7th of 2009. Several of its supplemental materials are embedded below.

History
One of the largest projects for the class in COMM 385 was to come up with a 30-second TV PSA script, one that advertised some greater service and addressed troubled teens. This was interpreted by the Dozerfleet founder as a counseling center similar to the Boys Town National Hotline in nature, a place that would reach out to troubled teens in much the same way as Wedgwood Christian Services. To incorporate the worlds of Dozerfleet Comics into the picture, it was decided that this assignment would venture out of the Trapezoid Kids' world and instead take place in Classic Gerosha.

The Viron Counselors Network was to target teens that had been misdirected into gangs, unwanted pregnancy, porn addiction, theft, and thoughts of suicide. A little bit of all of these needed to be addressed in the ad. First, before anything else, a basic script was envisioned of a few teens being shown with their struggles, along with a narrator similar to Dennis Haysbert explaining what VCN could do to turn these teens around. An ad copy script was then typed up in the recommended format for class, and timed to make sure everything that happened could be crunched into 30 seconds.

After that, various storyboards were rendered using The Sims 2. The storyboards were compiled into a PowerPoint slideshow, which was to be presented in class along with the script. A shot breakdown sheet was included, so as to clarify what was happening when in each scene.

Characters

 * Barry Smoke
 * Celia Mozel
 * Vanessa Mozel
 * Lana Fething
 * James Amarillo
 * Chuck Tussland
 * Amelia Kinto

Reception
In spite offering necessary information via the shot breakdown sheet, the piece was accused of not doing so. The teacher wanted that same information in the script, even though it was mostly already there. The assignment was given a C grade, and appeals were to no avail. The class had mixed/mediocre reactions, which were expected. None of them cared for the Boys Town ads on TV on Fox in the 90s, and a knock-off taking place in a fictional universe wasn't going to sway them either.