Coors Light Billboards Ordered for Removal
University of Illinois officials requested that Coors Light remove six billboards from campus. The billboards described the beer as the “Official beer of the Fighting Illini” and were scattered around campus.
The billboards were a surprise to the university officials, but it was not quite unfamiliar. The art was approved, but only in places that sold alcohol, such as in bars and restaurants. Officials were not aware it would grace sky high billboards.
According to university spokeswoman Robin Kaler, in a quote in the Chicago Tribune, there was concern about the advertisements being geared towards students. The issue in the advertisement being on and around campus being that the vast majority of students are eighteen to twenty, which is clearly not in accordance with the legal drinking age. It could be argued that the signs are advocating underage drinking, which is already a serious problem being cracked down on by many college campuses.
In the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 25% of youth from sixteen to age twenty reported drinking alcohol and 16% reported to binge drinking. Underage drinking has been deemed as the cause of higher absence rates, many legal issues related to alcohol use, as well as a greater chance of abusing drugs.
These stats in mind, the billboards received some major backlash from blogs in that it is just another mistake in the numerous mistakes the institution has been making. Along with the Salaita incident and the rise in foreign students and the decline in African-American students, the university cannot seem to catch a break.
The signs have been since removed from campus and were only up for a month. For added measure, the spokeswoman for MillerCoors, Cat Corrigan, stated they did not want to advertise “to anyone except legal drinking-age sports fans.” This marks the more visible signage as a simple misunderstanding between the university and the company.