UF students create ad campaign aimed at excessive drinking

April 25, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When GatorWell Health Promotion Services and the University of Florida’s Department of Health Education and Behavior launch a campuswide anti-drinking ad campaign this summer, they’ll use material created by the people they’ll target — students.

Advertising students in UF’s College of Journalism and Communications have designed ad campaigns that show freshmen the dangers of binge drinking.

“We’re trying to promote mature behavior,” said Virginia Dodd, assistant professor in the health education department, “and who would know better what would work than the students?”

By participating in this program, the college is contributing to UF President Bernie Machen’s goal of curbing alcohol abuse on campus, said John Sutherland, advertising professor and department chairman. “It’s a wonderful way for us all to work together.”

The campaign aims to counter the peer pressure associated with high-risk drinking (having five or more drinks in one sitting), decrease the amount of alcohol consumed by heavy drinkers to four or fewer drinks and reduce the number of freshmen who become high-risk drinkers. Forty-five percent of UF students had consumed five or more alcoholic drinks at one sitting during the two weeks prior to the 2006 UF CORE Alcohol and Drug Survey.

Many UF students view alcohol consumption as a normal and expected part of their college experience.

“This type of social environment encourages high-risk drinking, which is associated with sexually transmitted diseases, violence, sexual assault and poor academic performance,” said Tavis Glassman, co-grant administrator and coordinator of Alcohol & Other Drug Prevention for GatorWell Health Promotion Services.

“Students don’t have to go out and get wasted to have fun,” said advertising junior Jovanna Bell, who took one of the classes, which were taught by advertising associate professors Lisa Duke and Robyn Goodman.

The campaign has affected some of the students in the class, Duke said.

“They’ve learned to examine their own behavior in a more critical way,” she said. “They’ve started looking at people they interact with and realize there’s a healthier way to conduct their social life.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools funded the campaign with a $283,745 grant. Dodd and Glassman will take various aspects from the student ads and combine them to create the final ad campaign, which will start this summer.