NIU students wishing to flex their creative muscles will have the chance to do so on a national scale.

NIU, along with 200 other schools, is taking part in the Aquafresh Extreme Clean YouTube Campaign, which challenges student filmmakers to create a video for the toothpaste. The filmmakers can upload the video online and onto YouTube through the Aquafresh Extreme Clean site.

After the video is posted online, the contest begins. The winners will be determined based on the number of views they receive via YouTube, the relevancy to the brand message and creativity.

Although the contest is open to the public, most of the promotion for it will be

geared toward the college students on those 200 campuses.

“We obviously want NIU to win and I’m looking forward to seeing the videos from our students,” said Dorian Richardson, a junior economics major, acting as a representative for NIU. “I think we can outshine those other schools and show that we’ve got creativity and talent.”

The other participating schools are spread throughout the nation. The other nine schools in Illinois include Eastern Illinois University, DePaul, Illinois State University, Loyola, Northwestern, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“The students on these campuses are our target for the contest,” said Robin Quattlander, a regional leader of consultants in Illinois for the contest.

“College students are the most likely to use YouTube and post and watch videos there.”

The grand-prize winner will receive $10,000 and a trip to a professional filming of their own Aquafresh commercial. First-prize winners will receive a MacBook, a color photo printer, Final Cut Studio 2 software and an 80GB iPod; and second-prize winners will receive a $2,000 Best Buy gift card.

“There will be posters and other advertisements of the contest around campus,” Richardson said. “It’s not limited to just film or marketing majors. We want a large output of creativity from our students at NIU.”

The requirements for the commercial are that it must contain the statement “A feeling of clean like nothing else” and a package shot of Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste or the Aquafresh logo.

Editor’s note: Dorian Richardson works in the Northern Star business department as an advertising sales representative.