The Hillsdale marketing team posted a parody of the viral “nihilist penguin” clip, generated in part by artificial intelligence, on the college social media accounts Jan. 25.
The post drew some criticism in the comment section from current and former students for adopting an internet trend and using generative AI, but the marketing team says the video was a fun way to reach more people and just as much a human creation as it was AI.
“The penguin meme struck an interesting cultural nerve, resonating immediately with audiences around the world,” Executive Director of Brand Management Juan Dávalos said. “When we saw that millions of people identified with a penguin that refused to follow the crowd and chose instead to head into the mountains to pursue the higher things, we thought we could leverage the opportunity.”
The ad parodies the “nihilistic penguin” clip and meme that went viral last month, in which a lone penguin in Antarctica departs from its colony and heads toward the distant mountains. The footage originates from Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary “Encounters at the End of the World,” in which a penguin — which has apparently given up on life — heads inland instead of toward the mating grounds with its colony.
“Doctor Ainslie explained that even if he caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains,” the voiceover says in the documentary clip. “But why?”
An image of the penguin heading toward the mountains has circulated on the internet as a symbol of individualism for the past month with the caption: “But why?”
In Hillsdale’s version, the penguin heads not toward certain death but toward a human research facility, where it finds a computer, climbs into an office chair, and punches in the online.hillsdale.edu website.
“He enrolls in ‘Exodus,’ taught by Professor Jackson, an excellent choice, for Exodus is the story of departure, of leaving what is known when staying has become impossible,” the voiceover in the college’s ad says. “The researchers will call this coincidence. They are wrong. Truth is simpler and more unsettling. The penguin did not abandon the colony to become different. He left because he already was.”
The screen fades to bold words: “BE THE PENGUIN.”
Chairman and Professor of English Justin Jackson said he loved the ad when he saw it.
“Thank God conservatives actually can have a sense of humor,” Jackson said. “God forbid, because where are we turning to in this world if we can’t have a sense of humor?”
There is a dark humor to the meme itself, Jackson said, as the penguin walks toward death. He said he was proud of whoever made the parody video and would have done the same himself.
“I will say this as a die-hard existentialist. In one’s own death, that’s where you find your individuality, because it will only be your own death, no one else’s,” Jackson said. “I think that’s what Herzog was trying to do. Is the college goofing on it and playing with it? Yes. I don’t want to overanalyze that. I just thought it was damn funny.”
The aim of Hillsdale’s marketing is always to draw people toward the liberal arts on campus and online, Zeiser said.
“Of course, we know the penguin in the documentary was not choosing to pursue the higher things or rejecting narratives, but that is how the meme was interpreted on social media,” Dávalos said. “Memes are about recontextualization.”
The marketing team saw an opportunity to tie the idea behind the trend into Hillsdale’s mission, Dávalos said.
“The penguin helped make an important point: We should all seek the higher things, even when the crowd is headed elsewhere,” Zeiser said.
The video received more than 900 likes on Instagram and 2,000 on X, but some current and former students criticized the ad in the comment section on Instagram.
“Not a fan of the use of AI here nor in the tendency of Hillsdale lately to jump on the latest social media trends without care,” Maya Toman ’25 wrote in the comments. “My Hillsdale education meant a lot to me because it taught me to go ad fontes [to the sources] and test new ideas against the enduring truths. I am not seeing this spirit in Hillsdale’s online presence these days.”
Senior Oliver Bieser said he thought the ad made the college look ridiculous and amounted to a cheap ploy to attract donors.
“AI slop advertising does not appeal to Gen Z — the college’s future students — much less to academic audiences, the prestigious institutions with which the college hopes to align,” Bieser told The Collegian, adding it attracts only those who pursue progress at the expense of art and humanity. “The college is implicitly saying with this ad that it cares more about these people and their money than anyone who might actually advance its mission beyond a financial standpoint.”
He and his friends filled the comment section with memes and gifs in protest.
“The use of generative AI in any capacity by an institution that claims to be a bastion for the liberal arts is tragic and embarrassing,” senior Gabriel Bileca said. “As an art major who wholeheartedly believes in the unique beauty of human creation, I find it disheartening to see this college that I love so dearly endorse the use of generative AI.”
Senior Chris Tufaro said he thought the ad was funny.
“Hillsdale is getting in on the trend, and it’s not that serious,” Tufaro said. “People shouldn’t get so worked up about things that aren’t very serious. Social media is at its best when it is used to entertain people, and that is exactly what the Hillsdale ad did.”
Leveraging social media trends like the penguin meme allows messages to travel further and more efficiently in marketing, Dávalos said.
“The penguin video may seem somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but we take the college’s mission very seriously, especially the charge to educate ‘all persons who wish,’” Executive Director of Social Media Bill Zeiser said. “To raise awareness of Hillsdale, we have to engage people where they are, including on social media, and occasionally turn cultural moments into teaching moments.”
Jackson said parodying the viral video made the college look clever.
“It’s beyond clever, it’s smart,” Jackson said. “If we do a dichotomy between progressives and conservatives, and one side makes us laugh, and the other side chides us for laughing, I know which side I’m on. And I’m not conservative. I think it’s a home run.”
He said the ad did not in any way conflict with the college’s approach to the proper use of AI. The college does not tell students to avoid AI completely, he said, but only when its use would retard the exercise of the student’s intellect.
“Are there unethical ways to use AI? Of course there are,” Jackson said. “Was this one of them? No. Does AI reduce labor? Yes. Is this labor reduction with great fruits on the other side? Yes.”
The artificial intelligence software used to create the ad, higgsfield.ai, did not generate a finished product, Zeiser said, but helped in a collaborative creation process.
“The process is surprisingly close to traditional filmmaking,” Zeiser said. “A member of our team developed the concept, wrote the script, created short AI-assisted clips, edited them together much as he would conventional footage, and handled sound design and color correction.”
Zeiser compared the process to the use of Massive Software, an early AI software, to create battle scenes with tens of thousands of orcs for the “Lord of the Rings” films. A short film like the penguin ad would have required six figures and months of work a few years ago, he said, but advances in AI technology have made that process more accessible.
Using generative AI for animation in this way does not contradict the college’s mission, he said, and the ad was an early experiment for how AI can be used in the college’s marketing on a more formal basis.
“The ‘Lord of the Rings’ films, like our penguin clip, use computer technology not as a substitute for human thought, but as an aid to human vision,” Zeiser said. “That is fundamentally different from having AI write a term paper. There is no substitute for the exercise of reason. A liberal arts education exists precisely to cultivate that special capacity, which sets human beings apart from the penguins.”
