Since research confirms that alcohol advertising influences students to drink, allowing such advertising during collegiate sports events seems as logical as returning long-prohibited tobacco advertising.
Twenty-five percent of incoming freshmen at UNC are under 18, and most undergraduates are younger than 21. Studies find freshmen now spend more hours drinking than studying.
Most institutions are adopting environmental strategies to change their culture of extreme drinking. Like tobacco, most oppose relationships between educational institutions and the problematic alcohol industry.
But to the malt beverage industry, more concerned with profit than public health, inter-collegiate sports are a coveted marketing prize to reach this population.
Last year, Anheuser Busch launched its "fan can" promotion, even pirating university colors to enhance its product sales. UNC opposed this promotion, prohibiting use of its colors or logos.
Given the unseemly nature of a relationship with an industry whose products jeopardize students and compromise academic mission, institutions are pushing back. Many forcefully advocate an end to all alcohol advertising during collegiate events.
For example, 16 athletic conferences, endorsing the Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV, have signed pledges to eliminate beer advertisements from college sports, and 365 member institutions have requested the NCAA end beer advertising during televised collegiate events.
Former UNC basketball coach Dean Smith has been a leader in this movement. Smith said, "If aspirin were the leading cause of death on college campuses, do you think chancellors, presidents, and trustees would allow aspirin commercials on basketball and football telecasts? They wouldn't, not for a minute."
With game days often accompanied by daylong drinking and partying, many reasonably worry about student, fan, and community health and safety. In Chapel Hill, "You Honk -- We Drink" signs, prominently displayed by underage partiers, are a common sight.
University of Georgia President Michael Adams, speaking as a member of the NCAA Executive Committee, said, "We don't think beer advertising is appropriate for college sports.
Still, the NCAA approved significant beer advertising contracts for "March Madness" NCAA tournament games.
The American Medical Association countered with its "Stop the Madness" campaign, challenging the relationship between the alcohol industry and collegiate sports.
Said George Hacker of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, "Beer is the most abused drug on college campuses. But the NCAA is selling out students and other young people to beer marketers."
UNC has long had a policy prohibiting alcohol sales at its sporting events, though its Board of Trustees, allegedly for economic reasons, is considering allowing sales at Kenan Stadium. Placing students first, they should resoundingly reject this counter-productive policy change.
With alcohol abuse considered the greatest collegiate problem, prohibiting alcohol advertising during its events is sound and responsible policy.
Universities can't have it both ways. If campus alcohol abuse is as serious a threat as reported, they must adopt policies reducing this threat, strongly rejecting private marketing ploys that encourage their students to drink.
The alcohol industry should not be allowed to profit at the expense of student health.
Ronald E. Bogle is a retired Superior Court judge and works with the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers.
