WTF STFU

words SAIGE KOLPACK
art JULIAN EARNEST

As most of you know campus is going smoke and tobacco free. To be honest, I don’t really have much of an opinion on the matter. We all know it’s not good for your health, and if people still want to smoke, it’s their choice. What causes me to say “what the fuck” is the policy’s advertising campaign. At first glance, it’s kind of funny. Smoke and Tobacco Free University, STFU, shut the fuck up, I get it. But let’s for a moment think beyond our small bubble of students and faculty. Custodians, construction workers, and other support staff are a major smoker demographic on campus. The message isn’t “We’re concerned for you and our campus’ health.” It’s more like, “Get the fuck out.”

As far as publicity methods go, it fails to meet several key criteria. Is it creative? Yeah, I guess. Does it get your attention? Yep. Is it informative (i.e., does it really tell you anything about the smoke and tobacco free campaign)? Not so much. And last, but certainly not least, does it give you a way to put the movement into action? Not even close. The health center is providing free nicotine patches for those willing to try and quit, but you don’t see anything about that on the poster. Instead it says, “You smoke? You suck, and also you have no say in the matter, so shut the fuck up.” The salt in the wound of this whole issue is that the ad was created by none other than our very own corporate uncle, Nike. Thanks Phil, that’s really nice.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 18th, 2011 at 12:49 am. It is filed under Uncategorized and tagged with Julian Earnest, Saige Kolpack, smoke and tobacco free university, smoking ban, STFU, University of Oregon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.