Super Bowl Commercial Based On CWU Music Project

January 29, 2004

EDITOR'S NOTE: Further information about CWU's music composition project can be found on palmOne's Web site: www.palmone.com/us/education/studies/study54.html.

View the commercial. (Best with broadband, requires Quicktime plug-in.)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- Remember Mean Joe Greene tossing his football shirt? Michael Jordan vs. Larry Bird? How about the 1984 Apple Computer commercial? Some of the most memorable Super Bowl moments have occurred not on the field, but during the commercial breaks, and you might be wondering about the inspiration behind those classic ads.

Central Washington University music professor Mark Polishook's ground-breaking idea to use Palm Pilots as a way to help students compose is now the basis for a palmOne commercial, scheduled to air in select markets during Super Bowl XXXVIII.

"To be able to showcase our music students and have their work referenced in a television commercial that airs during the Super Bowl is wonderful," Polishook says.

The idea for the commercial derives from an unusual project created by Polishook, who directs the music and theory program in CWU's music department. In this project his students receive handheld computers and music software, which they use to compose music. Among the outcomes of the handheld composing project was a new collection of pieces written by CWU composition students. This work has been presented at concerts in Ellensburg and Spokane.

"This story was chosen as one of our ads because it's interesting," Scott Hancock, palmOne marketing director, points out. "It complements our other commercials, and it illustrates one of the many functions of our handheld."

In its commercial, palmOne has chosen to feature an excerpt from "Pilot This!" written by CWU graduate students David Blink, from Las Vegas, and Joyce Barnes, Federal Way, and performed by CWU music students.

The commercial will air in the Denver, Colo., and Raleigh, N.C., markets during the Super Bowl, perhaps on a national basis the remainder of the year, and on the palmOne Web site. Central has full use of the commercial for its Web site and also for academic conferences.