Bluffton graduate Addison Schreiber honors her university in a commercial
By GLEN WERLING
It was a commercial that aired during the holidays. A self-proclaimed Christmas card from Purdue University.
And at its center was a 2019 Bluffton graduate, Addison Schreiber, daughter of Kevin and Kelly Schreiber of rural Bluffton.
“I’m a part of the Purduettes which is a choir here at Purdue,” Schreiber said.
Schreiber’s major at Purdue is political science. Purdue offers no degrees in music, but has a historic and active music program through Purdue Music Organizations. The Purduettes is one of the choirs within the PMO.
Members of the Purdue marketing team were producing a holiday-themed ad promoting the university. They asked the organizers of PMO to provide a soloist for its commercial.
The marketing team was looking for a Nora Jones-eque type voice, Schreiber said. “One of my directors reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to do that,” Schreiber said. “My director thought I would be a good fit.”
She added that she likes trying every opportunity that Purdue gives her. Last summer, she accepted an offer to sing at the Purdue summer commencement ceremony. “Every time I get an opportunity to do something like that, I try to take it,” Schreiber said.
The commercial was recorded in early November. In the commercial, a light snow is seen falling as Schreiber plays the piano and is gradually joined by other students in singing the Purdue Fight Song.
However, all is not as it would appear.
“It actually did snow that night,” Schreiber recalled. She had to be on set an hour early and during that period it snowed.
“It was enough snow to get my hair wet and make me really cold and wet,” Schreiber said. “But then it stopped by the time we actually had to film, so the snow you see in the video is from a big snow machine.”
Schreiber also is a piano player, but in order to control the sound environment in which the commercial was recorded, the piano sound was dubbed in. The singing — which is Schreiber actually singing, but from earlier in a recording studio — was also dubbed in.
It took the recorders about three takes per vocal section to nail it down. The filming itself was about an hour and a half. The commercial is exactly one minute and one second.
Several students are also featured in the commercial including some of Schreiber’s really close friends. Students who are part of the Boiler Ambassadors are also featured in the commercial.
“It was a little nerve-wracking, because I’ve never done anything like this before. But it was really cool. I just tried to follow what they told me to do,” Schreiber said.
“I’ve always really enjoyed music. I’m definitely planning to include music in my life after I graduate (in 2023) so if it happens to be something I end up doing full-time then that would be really cool,” Schreiber said.
She admitted she would be open to doing something similar again, although she thought if the marketing team tapped PMO for a singer again, they would probably want to give another PMO student an opportunity.
“But I’m really glad they picked me for this one,” she said.
If you missed it
While the commercial that features Schreiber ran only during televised Purdue sporting events during the holidays, you can still catch it on YouTube by typing ‘A Boilermaker Carol’ into your browser. It will pop right up.
glenw@news-banner.com
