One poster warns against a "sausagefest."
Another reads, "Attention Ladies: Dong Cheng cried when he watched The Notebook."
The back of a naked girl, covered in tattoos, graces a third.
The creativity behind the posters, chalking and flyers of this semester's freshmen student-government campaigns is certainly turning heads across campus.
But beyond attracting freshman voters who say these advertisements are eye-catching, Undergraduate Assembly officials say the candidates' creativity is a promising indicator of their potential.
"They have a good sense of how to market their names and make it appealing," UA chairman and College senior Jason Karsh said.
Wharton freshman Jay Rodrigues, for example, chose body-sized posters to advertise himself.
Four of Rodrigues' friends have been parading on campus since Wednesday with giant placards hanging from their necks that read "Jay for UA."
"Four kids with huge boards hanging from their necks - you can't miss that," Rodrigues said.
Wharton freshman Andrew Dudum, who is running for class president, spent six hours hanging up three posters. He attached string to 15-foot bedsheets, tied shoes to these strings and flung the shoes into the air to wrap around the highest branches of the trees.
"When you have 12 people running for president and 33 for UA seats, they obviously need to find a way to distinguish themselves, whether it's through slogans, catchy names or references to pop culture," said Colleen Donovan, College senior and vice-chairwoman of the Nominations and Elections committee.
This year's elections drew in 64 candidates for 74 positions, an increase from the 69 positions that students ran for last year.
Wharton freshman Andrew Kang is using the Penn-Princeton rivalry to attract voters. His posters show a Penn student urinating on the Princeton crest.
"I wanted to show that me and other Penn students have something in common," said Kang, a vice-presidential candidate.
This year's campaign strategies focus more on the personal attributes of the candidate rather than their platforms.
And for good reason, freshmen voters say.
"When I vote, it's going to come down to just whoever's name I remember," said College freshman Brittany Mullings.
Class-president candidate and College freshman Maya Tepler, for instance, is pushing her gender, emphasizing that all other classes have male presidents, and that "no one likes a sausagefest."
"You've got to come up with something clever so people will vote for you," Tepler said. But "I have ideas to back it up."
College freshman Leila Decker, who speaks four languages and is running for a UA seat, wrote "We Can Do It" in 10 languages on her posters as an appeal to the many diverse groups on campus.
Donovan agreed that this year's campaigning was very candidate-focused.
"It's moved away from 'vote for me' to 'here's a little bit more about me," she said.
UA member and College senior Sarah Abroms added, "everyone is trying to figure out what the trick to campaigning really is."
- Staff writer Jody Pollock contributed reporting to this article.
