Clark Atlanta drumline chops—and chomps—through McDonald’s ad

Web-only image courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Drum major Cass Gray is one of the Clark Atlanta University students featured in McDonald's ads.

April 27, 2005

A UMNS Report
By Linda Green*

Clark Atlanta University is lovin’ it. Students from the historically black United Methodist school are starring in three McDonald’s commercials airing across the United States.

Riding the wave of the hit movie “Drumline,” the drummers from Clark Atlanta University’s Mighty Marching Panther Band are featured in a new commercial for McDonald’s value meals airing on network TV, BET and in syndication. Other students, including Ms. Clark Atlanta University 2005-2006, are featured in commercials for the fast-food chain’s Chicken Select.

The commercials represent a marketing bonanza for the school, says Clark spokesman Larry Calhoun. “It is great publicity. We’re getting our name in markets all over the country.

“These markets are important to us because our students and potential students come from some of these same markets where the commercials are airing across the country,” Calhoun says. The dollar value of the commercials in terms of attracting new students “cannot be measured.”

The 2002 movie “Drumline” highlights the journey of a young hip-hop drummer from Harlem who wins a music scholarship to Atlanta A&T University and aspires to perform on the marching band’s drumline. Filmed at Clark Atlanta University, the movie brought the school to the attention of McDonald’s advertising executives, who were seeking a Southern school for the company’s commercials, Calhoun says.

Larry Calhoun

A film crew shot Clark’s drumline—the band members who play percussion instruments—drumming away in their uniforms and munching on french fries. The spot, filmed in November, is playing in major U.S. markets. Student performers were paid according to the guidelines set by the Screen Actors Guild, and the school’s band program received an additional $10,000 fee.

The university is proud of the students, he notes. “The students are so talented. They are not actors. We are so proud of the talent here on our campus.”

One of those students is drum major Cass Gray, a sophomore in music education. He is used to being out in front, but he marvels at how the ads have increased his popularity on campus and in his hometown of Anderson, S.C., where he attends Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“Everywhere I go, I am asked, ‘Aren’t you the guy in the McDonald’s commercials?’”

During filming, Gray took bites out of 20 hamburgers and ate countless French fries. He had not been a regular patron of the ubiquitous restaurant chain, which has 13,700 U.S. eateries, but the commercial has changed that. “I eat it a lot more now,” he says.

“It was an honor for me, an honor for the band and an honor for the university,” he says of the experience. “It is not every day that stuff like this happens to people like me in a university like this, and for me being such a young student here, it was a certainly a great honor to be chosen to do something as big as being in a national commercial.”

The selection of Clark for the commercial reflects that “historically black schools are just as good as all the other schools out there,” Gray says. “Our students are just as good as the other students out there.”

Being featured in three commercials is “a wonderful opportunity” for Clark Atlanta University, Calhoun says. It “helps make people become more aware of the university as one of the leading historically black universities in the country. It also says something about our students and the quality of the students we attract and help to develop.” 

The commercials represent an advertising windfall for Clark, he says. “It is a win-win situation to be a part of a national advertising campaign from a popular consumer products (retailer) as McDonald’s. It represents millions of dollars in advertising that we are a part of through McDonald’s.”

Courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Ronald McDonald helps direct the Clark Atlanta University band at a celebration recognizing their role in a recent McDonald's commercial.

After the commercial featuring the drumline, McDonald’s ad executives began seeking a Southern university to showcase Chicken Selects. Clark got the nod again, and two versions of the spot are airing featuring Jackie Payne, Ms. Clark Atlanta University 2005-06 on network TV, BET and in syndication. Payne was one of four Clark women chosen from 150 candidates to appear in the two chicken commercials. The ads can be seen at www.cau.edu.

On April 16, the university hosted a public celebration of the commercials and its partnership with McDonald’s at one of the chain’s local restaurants. Company representatives, along with Ronald McDonald, attended, as well as the university’s 80-member band and drumline, which performed.

For Gray, the commercials are only one highlight in an eventful academic year. He can personally relate to the “Drumline” movie because his ascension to drum major mirrored that of the main character. He began as a “regular” band student and became leader, a rarity for a sophomore band member. 

Says Gray: “If you put your mind to getting what you want, and if you do it, you know that anything is possible.”

Editor’s note: Information about Clark Atlanta University can be found at www.cau.edu. The school receives support through the United Methodist Church’s Black College Fund, at www.UMCgiving.org.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Audio Interviews Larry Calhoun.: “It’s a win/win situation.” Cass Gray: “I was going to be seen by eyes all over the world.”

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