“Stampede Marketing Solutions” launched a campus-wide campaign this week to educate students on the benefits of fiscal management and the consequences of bad credit.

The four-day campaign that started Monday was comprised of 24 students from an advertising and promotion communications class at the Cox School of Business. Judy Foxman, lecturer of marketing, led the students, who worked together this semester to create credit awareness among other students. Under the guidance of EdVenture Partners, they modeled the campaign to meet the goals of Citibank Credit-Ed program.

In an effort to capture campus attention, the students used a sad clown, an easily recognizable figure, to connote the misery brought about by bad credit. With the adoption of a teaser campaign, they stimulated interest and curiosity among other students.

“A lot of people were actually interested,” said Reagan Noll, a junior advertising and marketing major.

The sad clown campaign helped create awareness among the students who attended the event sponsored by the marketing class.

“It was definitely a success … a much larger turnout than expected,” senior marketing major Dana Curtiss said. “We were aiming for 250 people to fill out the brochures, but instead we got 350.”

The brochures targeted the personalized nature of credit and how learning financial responsibility is not only a fundamental but necessary skill. Those who attended received pamphlets with information on how to successfully manage finances in an effort to eliminate debt and build good credit.

“I thought it was an extraordinary event, and I was excited that they were presenting SMU students with information on how to manage their credit,” said Chinyere Okoro, a business major.

“Stampede for Marketing Solutions” also offered a chance to obtain a free credit report by visiting Citibank’s Web site.