The 9th grade capstone project is to create a marketing and advertising campaign for Merit. Typically, this includes a 60-second commercial, a print ad, and a 5 minute pitch at the annual FATE Student Showcase.
This year, instead of making a commercial solely for the Merit brand, we collaborated with Détroit Is The New Black (a Detroit-based clothing brand) for both the 9th and 10th grade capstone projects. The goal was to create a campaign that highlighted the collaboration between the two brands.
Although their project was interrupted by the covid-19 school shutdown, FATE 9th graders worked hard over Zoom and produced final themes and storyboards for their commercial ideas. These ideas were then combined to create a final commercial. The commercial saw the brand founders - David Merritt (Merit) and Roslyn Karamoko (Détroit Is The New Black) conversing about how the pandemic impacted their businesses, the current social climate, and the importance of a mission-driven brand.
Watch the full commercial below!
“That’s why businesses like ours with that mission base, it’s so powerful because it always gives us something to fall back on. We’re doing it for a particular purpose and sometimes when challenges arise or things don’t go right, that mission is what keeps us going.” - David Merritt
“It’s about being bold and sticking to what you believe. Identifying what’s for you and being bold in that.” - Roslyn Karamoko
