In response to a statewide economic crisis resulting in a 9% funding cut for Texas community colleges, the presidents of nine Houston area community colleges formed a consortium to pool their resources and aggressively market the colleges. Since 1986, the Gulf Coast Consortium has mounted late-summer television and radio advertising campaigns to raise the image of the community colleges and hence public interest in individual institutions, and to increase awareness of community colleges as a viable alternative to higher-priced senior institutions. The advertising campaigns, which target the traditional student age group and women re-entering the workforce, are designed to dispel the negative perceptions held by area adults about the prestige, educational quality, and student caliber of the community colleges, while underscoring the benefits of a community college education. The consortium's first campaign resulted in a gain of more than 473,000 contact hours, for a minimal investment of $150,000. A revised campaign the following year delivered another 3.5% increase in contact hours. Rather than utilize the services of an advertising agency as in previous years, the 1988 campaign is being researched, written, produced, and placed on the air by in-house professionals at a great reduction in cost. (UCM)