• by Wendy Melillo , June 18, 2009

When the adults finally shut up and asked college students what would solve the problem of binge drinking on college campuses, they got revealing answers. No federal law will stop us from drinking alcohol, students said. What we need is to be taught to drink responsibly -- so we don't do something stupid.

That's exactly what Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications delivered to the American Advertising Federation's national student ad competition. The work is called "The Stupid Drink," and the slogan and accompanying effort helped Syracuse win the competition to create a $10 million public service advertising campaign paid for by the Century Council, the liquor industry's trade group dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking.

Syracuse's campaign targets a specific moment. "The stupid drink is the one drink between being in control and being out of control," said Paul Savaiano, a recent Syracuse graduate, who served as the team's director of planning. "The problem isn't drinking. It's drinking too much."

That's why the campaign's strategy is to "identify and stigmatize the one drink" that crosses the line. Its online elements include a Web site, featuring TV spots and videos. One features Bill Nye, "the science guy," who teaches students about the chemistry of drinking alcohol. Winners of an online contest will appear as Nye's assistant in the next viral video. Called The Drinking Institute, the site allows visitors to play "symptoms of stupid" party games. Students can also request a picture of stupid symptoms sent to their cell phones. If friends overindulge, students can send them the picture. The same application is also available on Facebook.

Out-of-home efforts include bar stamps, poker cards and coasters with lines like "The Stupid Drink: The quickest way from cool to fool."

Priscilla Natkins, executive vice president and director of client services for the Ad Council, agrees with Savaino's approach. Natkins helped judge the competition, and calls Syracuse's campaign an "elegantly simple idea.

"What they set up very smartly is the premise that there is drinking and drinking too much. And when you cross that line, it's a place you don't want to go," said Natkins.  So far, that "place" has resulted in increased student hospital visits, drunk-driving arrests and deaths. The havoc has been so severe that a group of college presidents -- called the Amethyst Initiative -- want lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age to 18 to prevent a "culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking." The academics are convinced that "alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change."

By contrast, the Syracuse college team, under the direction of Edward Russell, an assistant professor of advertising, created one unifying message directed at a large number of people. Their research showed that in the journey from college freshmen to seniors, students got smarter about how they consumed alcohol. The team developed the drinking experience model, which showed that freshmen are "naïve" drinkers, whose goal is "to drink as much as possible to meet as many new people as possible." But seniors, considered experienced drinkers, had learned it was fine to be with friends without feeling the need - or pressure - to drink.

Given what's at stake, Russell, a veteran of Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett, says four years is too long to master responsible drinking. "What can we do to make that six months instead?" Russell asked the students working on the campaign. "We are not eliminating [the behavior], we are making [students] learn faster and by making them learn faster, we can keep them safer," he said.

Enter the slogan "The Stupid Drink." College students use the word "stupid" frequently, so it's familiar. Even better, the Syracuse team's research showed that students use it to define excess drinking. "It only takes one drink to get from drinking to drinking too much," the Syracuse team noted during the presentation. "Everyone has a stupid drink -- our parents, our professors, the judges of this competition. We can't just say, 'don't drink the stupid drink,' because that comes off as authoritarian."

But knowing that you are about to drink your stupid drink, and learning how to avoid it, is a practical dictate. Maybe it's the one drink that ruins your buzz and catapults you into sickness. Maybe it's the one that lands you in jail -- or worse. It's a message students can consider, rather than reject.

To date, the Century Council hasn't decided how much of the Syracuse effort it will use in the real PSA campaign in development. That's a no-brainer. How about all of it? That will show students that the adults get it: Everyone can learn from a clear, profound message. The stupid drink is a big idea. And it works because it's elegantly simple.