Finally, an advertising campaign aimed squarely at the college set.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has rekindled its “Got Beer?” campaign from two years ago, thanks to a new Harvard study on the damaging effects of dairy. PETA’s Web site claims milk can cause pimples, excess mucus, obesity, diabetes, heart cancer and, oddly enough, osteoporosis. The Web site also details the cruel and unusual treatment of milking cows and how they are “drained” of milk.
PETA was forced to pull the anti-milk, pro-beer advertising in 2000 after Mothers Against Drunk Driving protested the group’s irresponsibility in targeting college students with a campaign that advocated alcohol consumption. PETA maintains the advertisements are not intended to encourage drinking, despite the fact PETA marketed the campaign to the top 10 party schools in the nation – half of which ran the ads in the university newspaper.
And PETA, so convinced they’ve got a winner of an ad campaign on their hands, has taken to handing out beer cozies and bottle openers that say “Drinking responsibly means not drinking milk – save a cow’s life” to students who visit the Web site www.MilkSucks.com.
Editorial Board wants to know why MADD is so, well, mad about the whole thing. Surely no one is naïve enough to think a college student is going to drink just because a blatantly tongue-in-cheek advertisement suggested it. Admittedly, college students will respond more to a “Got Beer?” campaign as opposed to, say, a “Got Water?” campaign, but that’s only because college students drink in the first place. Can anyone blame PETA for appealing to one of the three vices of the college student – alcohol, sex and money – in what will no doubt be an effective advertising campaign?
Cheers to the marketing team behind the “Got Beer?” slogan. It’s about time someone learned how to appeal to the college student market.