American Eagle plans to stage freshmen move-in events at 50 campuses and works with university recreation centers to outfit intramural sports teams and fitness instructors. It also holds an annual academic competition for marketing students and flies the finalists to its Pittsburgh headquarters to present their cases to top executives. The company has even introduced a vintage-looking U.N.C. T-shirt that comes in, natch, Carolina blue.

It’s a multipronged effort intended to make students feel they are personally involved in the brand, says Cathy McCarthy, American Eagle’s senior director of campus marketing. The events, she says, are intended to amplify campus culture, not alter it. She flew in to observe the move-in event at U.N.C.

For its efforts, American Eagle gains insight from students about how to market to them, she says. Brand ambassadors, she says, acquire skills that can lead to a job at the company.

“There’s a two-way dialogue with our core customer,” Ms. McCarthy says. “There’s opportunity for recruitment as well.”

Mr. Britton of Mr. Youth says the real change on campus is that companies are marketing through students, not to them. “The only difference now is that, as opposed to it being executed by, you know, field service reps who weren’t their age, who didn’t really speak their language,” he says, “it’s being executed by their peers.”

Some universities welcome such programs, and the career experience they may provide, but others prohibit such activities, he says.

The lines aren’t always clear. U.N.C. officials, for example, say they don’t currently have a clear handle on how many students work as brand ambassadors — but it could be several hundred or more. “I don’t think we have a good grip on it,” Mr. Crisp says. “We are going to need to get a good grip on it.”