While many students might appreciate the collegiate architecture of St. Thomas, most don’t know the campus has been the set of three full-length films and 50 commercials–most recently, a BlackBerry commercial featuring best-selling British author Neil Gaiman.

The commercial was released Thursday and is part of the Keep Moving Projects from BlackBerry 10, a series that spotlights singer Alicia Keys, director Robert Rodriguez and Gaiman in an effort to motivate BlackBerry users to collaborate with the celebrated individuals on their next creative projects.

Gaiman is recognized as one of the top 10 living post-modern writers in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, and has written everything from comics to literature and song lyrics.

He cowrote the script to Robert Zemeckis’s “Beowulf” and authored the children’s book “Coraline.” The New York Times described Gaiman as “a hero,” after his 2011 “Doctor Who” episode, “The Doctor’s Wife.”

The majority of the commercial depicts Gaiman in locations around campus with the university’s recognizable architecture as a fitting backdrop for the collegiate look the commercial intended to portray.

“When you saw the scene of him walking through the (Lower) Quad, for instance, and you saw Roach, the arches, and Aquinas, it just immediately says ‘college,’” Bill Kirchgessner, executive director of branding and design, said. “They wanted some kind of outdoor scene, they saw our stadium and, again, college … and the library, of course, with its iconic windows.”

Kirchgessner made it clear that St. Thomas is not endorsing BlackBerry or Gaiman.

“As a non-profit organization, we cannot endorse a for-profit product,” Kirchgessner said. “That’s why our name is taken out (in the stadium scene). Whenever it might show up, part of the contract is all that naming comes off in post-production.”

Kirchgessner said St. Thomas junior Lindsay Goodwin reached out to him, and asked about helping out with production. After receiving approval from the production company, Goodwin was able to help set up scenes, as well as do a walk-through and even offer some advice only a Tommie would know.

“We kind of helped them pick some spots and stuff since we knew the campus better,” Goodwin said.

Although the campus looks fairly empty in the commercial, the scenes were actually filmed on Thursday, Feb. 7 and planned around the general student schedule.

“We started off in the library right away because there weren’t going to be many kids in the … Harry Potter room in the morning,” Goodwin said. “(Kirchgassner) and I were like, ‘you know, this is a good time for this.’”

Sophomore Molly Schroeder said she didn’t know the commercial was being shot for BlackBerry when she saw the crew filming on campus, but thought it was done really well when she watched it.

“I was walking across Summit (Avenue) and I saw them filming under the arches, (but) I didn’t know what it was for,” Schroeder said.

Junior Quinn Andreasen found Gaiman’s role in the commercial “inspiring.”

“I thought it was inspiring seeing how a very big writer such as himself is sitting at the same table I once did homework on, the same library that all of us walk through,” Andreasen said.

Senior Richard Shallbetter liked the concept of the commercial, too.

“My grandfather was a creative director in the advertising industry for many years,” Shallbetter said. “He told me that ‘a good advertisement tells a story.’ I feel like this ad goes beyond its product by doing just that.”

Kirchgassner said overall, the commercial is good for St. Thomas.

“People all around the U.S. and really all around the world, if they attended the university and they see that commercial, they’re going to know it’s us and that’s good for our brand and good for our alums,” Kirchgassner said.

Rita Kovtun, Jacob Sevening and Caroline Rode contributed to this report.