What in the name of Buster Bronco is Operation: Historic Moment?
Several weeks ago, a big box appeared in the Bernhard Center. The box sported a sleek black sheet with a rather enigmatic question mark emblazoned on it. It was placed in the center of the Western Michigan University seal in the floor. This box was clearly a publicity stunt for something, but what?
According to WWMT’s “News Channel 3”, Western Michigan University, being the folks behind Operation: Historic Moment, are promising something “that will impact the campus, community, state and nation for decades to come.” And WWMT promises they’ll be on hand when Historic Moment’s timer reaches zero this Tuesday.
The quest for answers lead to more questions. On February 22, a domain was registered with Domains by Proxy, a subsidiary of GoDaddy. This domain was operationhistoricmoment.com, and it was soon made a countdown timer. The tracks were covered well enough that it wasn’t possible to find out who registered this domain. Both this website and that big box are counting down. In fact, all the website does is tick away seconds until March 22 at 9:15 A.M.
What happens then? Well, according to the source code of operationhistoricmoment.com, it’ll say: It is finally here. That tells us nothing. But over the past days and weeks, the strange ad campaign has grown far outside an odd little box. From a billboard on US-131 to people in gold bodysuits – which for the record would be more effective sans the relatively random tennis shoes – the reach of this mysterious Operation seems to be ever-expanding.
Naturally, the goal of this stunt is to get people curious and talking, maybe even speculating. Which is entirely what this article is doing. So, well played, Operation: Historic Moment.
Rory Salinas posed the interesting thought that Western will unveil a time capsule, playing off the “Historic” in Operation: Historic Moment.
“I think Governor Snyder is going to hop out and declare Kalamazoo in a financial emergency,” joked Matthew Vargo, Vice-President of OUTspoken. After a few good laughs, he explained that really, it probably has to do with East Campus; “If I was a business wanting to invest in East Campus, this is how I’d get people to want to go there.”
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Brandi Hovizi expressed doubts about this, “I doubt they’d spend this kind of money on East Campus,” stated Hovizi.Â
Josh Kohnert, perennial voice in the Western Student Association and self-proclaimed “WSA Grandpa”, also had both real and humorous expectations. He posed the idea while talking with OUTspoken’s David Topping that perhaps it was unveiling a new mascot. As for his more serious expectations, Kohnert offered that he expected it was some large donation.
Proving that WMU students have a sense of humor, the trend continues with Anthropology major Chelsea Preston, who believes the countdown is to the conquest of the Goldsworth Valley geese, a theory that when combined with Kohnert’s might mean the geese seek to become a new mascot?
Another popular theory, though a less humorous one, is that it has to do with the impending WMU School of Medicine. Though, according to Matthew Vargo, that would probably involve a different strategy than people in gold body-suits. “More people would be involved,” said Vargo.
This doesn’t persuade people like Drew Everett, an Advertising and Promotion student here at Western, who firmly believes that not only is it an announcement about the Medical School, but that the new college would be situated on East Campus, combining popular theories into something rather historic indeed.
Still, whatever we discover Tuesday morning, it isn’t without apprehension from the students. Jen Nummerdor is irked by the placement of a large box with a countdown timer in one of the more inconvenient places it could possibly locate itself within the Bernhard Center and a Kalamazoo Gazette video featured many students echoing that sentiment, but concerns go even beyond that.
Nummerdor herself is concerned about the amount of money spent on this campaign. Though the “Medical school on East Campus” idea seems worth the while to her, if the Operation fails to measure up to the anticipation it’s attempting to generate, the money put forth may all be for naught.
Students like Michelle Howard worry that the Operation won’t live up to the hype. And with good reason, with the amount of attention and money that Western is putting in to this advertisement campaign, if it fails to impress students, a lot more than time will have been wasted.
Still, Ann Vornsand, a Music Education major, seems ready for the unveiling. As she said on Operation: Historic Moment’s facebook page; “Ready? Get set…WOW ME.”
For all our efforts, everything is just speculation. The only thing we know is Operation: Historic Moment is a go on 22 March. As Vornsand said: Wow us.
Sources          Â
March 18:Â http://www.wwmt.com/articles/big-1388623-wmu-kalamazoo.html