u of m marching band tcfThe University of Minnesota marching band forms the corporate logo of TCF Bank on the field at the university’s new TCF Bank Stadium in a promotional video released by the university today.

“The Road to TCF Bank Stadium” is being shown on the Big Ten Network cable TV channel and at the U of M website (or below).

It’s 22 minutes long but apparently fills a half hour on TV, with breaks between seven sections carrying titles like “Game Day Experience” and “Teamwork.”

You can glimpse the band form the “TCF” logo in a small box during the ending credits, but it’s easier to see in a separate short showing the entire Sept. 12 opening game against Air Force in only two minutes, using time-lapse videography.

Dusk has fallen, the field lights are on, and the band comes out to form a giant “M” for Minnesota at the 1:40 mark. The students in the marching band then transform their “M” into the letters “TCF” as they appear in the bank’s ads and signs.

Update: Tim Diem, director of the university’s marching band, tells the Minnesota Independent the band was simply displaying the name of the stadium. “If they’d named it Veterans Stadium, we would have spelled out ‘Veterans,’” Diem says. He disputes that the band had formed a corporate logo: “It’s the name of the building.” The home opener at TCF Bank Stadium was the second time the band did the “TCF” formation, according to Diem. They also did it last year at the Metrodome, when like last month, he says, “We were putting on a celebration.”

The longer video has a variety of people saying nice things about the university, the stadium, and the process that got TCF Bank Stadium built. Says Dave Mona of the Gopher Radio Broadcast Team:

I was afraid I’d see a ton of advertising. You’re not going to see — This is not a NASCAR. This is a college football stadium. I think people will be pleasantly surprised. Even though there’s a lot of corporate money in here, it’s very subtle.

But those “subtle” ads and logos that do make it into the stadium reach young adults in the midst of an important rite of passage, on the cusp of becoming full-fledged consumers. As U of M child-development Prof. Rich Weinberg sees it from his bleacher seat:

It’s been almost 28 years, I believe, since we’ve had a generation of students that have had the opportunity to experience this. And I really feel strongly that it’s not just by being in the classroom that’s important, but the whole socialization as a young adult really includes this experience.

Of course, even U of M classrooms carry corporate logos these days.

In the video, you’ll watch in vain for any explanation of TCF Bank’s $35 million naming-rights deal beyond a listing for the bank under the heading “Significant Corporate Sponsors & Donors.” That blurs a line that’s distinct in the lengthy contract between the university and the bank: TCF is paying for advertising.

tcf bank donor sponsor

Yet TCF Bank Chairman Bill Cooper seems to like that line blurred. Here’s what he told Mona and Star Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman on their “Sports Huddle” show on WCCO-AM last Sunday:

It’s kind of half charity and half business. We’ve seen a lot of business out of it.

Here’s “The Road to TCF Bank Stadium”: