What did you do that in? (not that traditional paints is a bad thing). . . Reminds me a bit of tempera water based poster paints that we used in high school. Or you could have applied a paper texture that had some wrinkles in it to make it look that way.
As to the style, it is pretty strongly negative, hahah. What were the parameters they gave everybody as a starting point? Maybe you overshot the mark because they were unclear in their directions.
Anyway, on whatever level, I think you got some good experience here about targeting for social purposes and feeling misled as to the points they want to make. It's all a dance when one's work will represent others.
"Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream