University and college institutional advertisements, which typically are broadcast as public service announcements during the halftime of football games, were the subject of a quantitative analysis focused on commonality in messaging and employment of the semiotic theory of brand advertising. Findings indicate advertisements focus on students' social lives at the expense of depictions related to an academic focus and that, at statistically significant levels, smaller universities are more likely than large ones to depict their research as having an impact beyond their own campus. Findings suggest that institutions recruit out-of-state students in pursuit of revenue rather than using the advertisements in service of efforts to raise funds.