Imagine the following scenario: a group of college students walk into a liquor store looking for refreshments to last them through the night. All of a sudden, the students come across a case of beer that really sparks their interest. It’s not your average case of beer, mind you. This one is adorned in the colors of the Wisconsin Badgers, red and white.
Immediately the students become overwhelmed by the desire to drink not just a few beers, but gallons of the stuff. On any other occasion these fictional students may have just indulged in three or four beers, but with their respective collegiate colors plastered all over the cans, they can’t help but drink themselves into a coma.
To the average person, myself included, this scenario is completely absurd. Ask yourself, “does the color of a beer can really affect how many I consume?”
In all likelihood, the resounding answer would be “no.” However, colleges across the country are racing to ban the so called “collegiate cans” from their campuses
The Anheuser -Busch Brewing Company unveiled the unique marketing plan earlier this year aimed at college students and alumni who spare no expense at showing off their team colors.
The plan is simple: adorn the classic Bud Light can with team colors from 27 different universities, all of which have active and nationally recognized college sports programs. The University of Wisconsin in particular has been trying to shed its image as a booze friendly campus for a few years now, so this particular promotion created quite a firestorm when it was first introduced.
UW -Madison, the University of Texas, the University of Michigan and others formally asked Anheuser -Busch to stop distributing the colored cans around their campuses.
Michigan went so far as to have university lawyers address copyright infringement with the large brewer, citing their improper use of the team colors “maize and blue.” While the copyright issue was the most extreme, a majority of the schools expressed concern over a seemingly irrelevant correlation between underage binge drinking and the color of the cans.
Hear that noise? It’s students and citizens across the country releasing a resounding, “huh?”
The ban on these colored cans makes zero sense. I would venture to guess that not even the most esteemed psychology professor could back up the claim that binge drinking and the color of a beer can are in any way, shape, or form related.
But university officials are basically supporting the same ridiculous anecdote that I told at the beginning of this story; the idea that college students, particularly underage students, will drink the collegiate colored beer like its water. Sound a bit like “Reefer Madness?” Yes, because that’s exactly what it is.
For a unique insight, I asked my dad if such a thing would have happened when he attended college in the 70’s. “Absolutely not. In fact, most campuses held fairly active promotions with breweries,” said my dad, Matt.
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete