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Please use your head
The Associated Press released a story yesterday, which shows that 1,400 college students are killed each year in alcohol-related accidents. The writer of the story expressed the opinion that this information should change the views of many that drinking is a rite of passage on campuses across the country.
The writer of this story should meet my neighbors. They drink and party five nights a week, if not six or seven. For these guys, drinking is no rite of passage; indeed, it is the harshest of addictions, a way of living that will probably become a way of life.
This information should change people's attitudes toward alcohol; it's some of the most disturbing news to come through this office since the student government began tinkering with the campus constitution. But the truth, as it will turn out, is even more disturbing.
People are creatures of habit. Biting your nails, dragging your feet, slouching and using profanity are tough habits to break (anyone who knows me has learned this), but trying to stop smoking (me again) and drinking are beyond tough. For people who live with this kind of addiction, it is near impossible.
People who use alcohol without consequences are as unlikely to quit their habit as Usama bin Laden is to find Jesus.
High schools around this country used to apply a program called "Scared Straight" to kids who looked like they were headed down the wrong path in life. We need something like this in college. "Scared smart" would be a good place to begin. The only question is how to do it. That is where the Ad Council comes into play.
Common sense ads don't seem to work. "Friends don't let friends drive drunk" is about as plainly and coldly as it can be put, yet these statistics show that most people must not have a lot of friends. We need something harsher, more real, that will not just make people think, but put the fear of God into them. Show a commercial where a wasted guy staggers into traffic and is hit by a bus. Or maybe one where a drunk falls asleep on some railroad tracks and, well, you get the idea.
The point is that people need some sort of jolt that will wake them up to real life. No statistic will do that in the visual age.
Don't think for a second that I'm against drinking. I'll probably go have a cool one in a sentence or two myself. But the point here is that people can only decide for themselves when they've had enough. Have you?
Matthew Janda can be reached at: [email protected]
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