Ford brings Focus Electric to Grand Valley

Students studying public relations at Grand Valley had an opportunity to get an up-close look at a prototype of the Ford Focus Electric vehicle and hear about the company’s promotional campaign from Ford Motor Company officials.

On Monday, October 24, the vehicle was viewed outside Lake Superior Hall on Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus, with Mike Tinskey, Ford’s global associate director of Electrical Vehicle Infrastructure. Dan Pierce, Ford’s global Environmental Communications manager, discussed the promotional campaign for the vehicle and answer students’ questions.

Tim Penning, associate professor in the School of Communications at Grand Valley, was contacted by Ford Motor Company officials after blogging about their earlier Grand Rapids event that Penning said “didn’t go so well.” He discussed the ramifications of that visit with students in some of his public relations classes last winter, and the students created campaigns to promote the vehicle to college students.