Under the direction of associate professor Ed Russell, they placed first in the 2009 National Student Advertising Competition, an annual competition by the American Advertising Federation. The competition’s client was The Century Council, a lobbyist group funded by distillers. Two years later, The Century Council decided to fund the campaign and test it at Syracuse University. 

Though the students thought they had a good idea, they were still surprised to see it funded.

Our hope was to have it implemented across the nation, said Maria Sinopoli, the group’s account management director and a 2009 SU alumna. ‘But we never actually thought The Century Council would throw money behind it. It’s pretty rare for a winning presentation to actually be given funds.

 

The campaign has already kicked off ó posters hang on the walls of campus buildings and the group delivered beer mugs to fraternity and sorority houses. The members will give out 4,000 T-shirts in the coming days, Russell said. 

According the group’s brochure from the competition, the members’ first objective is to reduce the number of students who report having a negative experience with alcohol by 20 percent in the first year.

 

We can’t really tell incoming freshmen not to drink, Sinopoli said. We wanted to identify a way for students to pinpoint a moment in their night when things went from fun to not so fun.

 

Some methods of spreading the message involve bathroom stickers, stadium billboards, bar stamps, and coasters and bathroom mirrors in bars, according to the brochure. 

 

Now, a completely different group of students is working on the campaign, but the campaign’s message hasn’t changed.

 

What we realized in development of the campaign was that freshmen who drink do so very differently than seniors who drink,’ Russell said. ‘We realized that learning curve is four years long for a lot of students.

Student will be able to see The Stupid Drink take shape online. The members, who use Facebook and Twitter to generate student interest, will make videos they hope will go viral, Russell said. And they have big future plans. 

 

‘We’ve got a couple of Quad events planned, Russell said. ‘We’re going to do some other handouts in one of the first basketball games.’

 

The group plans to host a big event at the men’s basketball exhibition game against Fordham University on Nov. 12, Russell said. 

 

With time, the group hopes to expand beyond SU, Russell said. Schools interested in ìThe Stupid Drinkî include the University of Colorado-Boulder, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. Lawrence University. 

Although national expansion is the eventual goal, Russell first wants to see how the test-run goes. 

‘A lot of people think it’s a smart idea,’ Russell said. ‘But we just need the real statistics to see if we’ve actually made a difference.’

 

Though the group will keep going as long as they have money, Russell said, the test run should end by Spring Break.

 

Iwa Mo, a sophomore fashion design major, sees the benefit of helping college students know when to stop drinking.

 

‘It’s college. It’s what kids do these days,’ Mo said. ‘I think it would broaden my thoughts and knowledge about the use of alcohol.’

 

anpatank@syr.edu