by Ryan Floersheim
Daily Lobo
Campus groups organized a forum Wednesday addressing advertising ethics, sex and alcohol, women's portrayal in the mass media and the New Mexico Daily Lobo and their possible negative impact on students.
The event, "Broken Bottles and Broken Bodies; A Forum on Alcohol, Violence and Advertisements on Campus," addressed a series of ads run in the Lobo that several campus groups have objected to due to their implied connection between sex and alcohol.
The groups say the advertisements undermine the safe environment UNM is trying to foster.
"The majority of the advertisements in the Lobo are responsible and acceptable," said Jill Anne Yeagley, panelist and program manager for UNM's Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention. "However, there are a few examples that are cause for concern."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The forum included a panel discussion, a film showing and an audience feedback session.
The film, titled "Advertising Alcohol: Calling the Shots," featuring sociology and alcohol expert Jean Kilbourne, claimed that more than 10 million Americans are alcoholics and that one in eight women will be raped during their lifetime - with half of those being a result of alcohol consumption.
Although Kilbourne admitted that even though the alcohol industry spends more than $90 billion a year on advertising, media sources do not directly lead to alcoholism or violence caused by it.
Panelists shared their thoughts on the Lobo's advertisements the part they play in promoting sexual assault. They also discussed issues of free speech and censorship.
Yeagley said the Daily Lobo has neglected its responsibility to its readers by promoting a false reality between alcohol and sex.
"They are normalizing excessive drinking and are guilty of running ads that link drinking and sex," Yeagley said. "The advertisers are playing on the inherent desires that we all have to sell their products."
Panelists targeted a particular ad purchased by the Downtown Distillery that reads "Drink Beer, Play Pool, Have Sex" as a symbol of the "dangerous territory" that has been entered.
John Steiner, project coordinator for the Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, said he thinks local advertisers have refined their tactics to target certain audiences, particularly impressionable college readers of the Daily Lobo.
"These bars have countless ways to attract consumers, they don't need to focus on ads appealing to high risk behaviors," he said.
Steiner added that the Lobo should have more respect for the women that read it, whom he claimed are "objectified" by such ads. But, he said, as adults, college students should take responsibility for their own actions.
Tony Au, a finance major, was one of several people in the audience who disagreed with the panelists. He said that while advertisements may convey certain messages to sell products, consumers are ultimately responsible for their own behavior.
"We are intelligent enough as college-aged people to realize the consequences of our actions," Au said. "We need to grow up and face the music for the decisions we make. Advertisers try to sway all of us for their benefit, but they're not twisting anyone's arm."
Summer Little, program services coordinator for the Women's Resource Center, said that her main concern with the Lobo is that its advertisements perpetuate a dangerous culture that already exists.
"Ads like this promote unrealistic expectations that sex is the logical result from drinking," Little said.
Elena Giacci, coordinator of the Prevention of Violence Against Women program, said that she has a problem with a respected medium such as the Daily Lobo endorsing risk-taking behavior, which she claims inevitably lead to women feeling unsafe.
"We're not saying not to drink, because we all do," Giacci said. "We're just asking the Lobo to think about their responsibility to the audience in trying to promote a safe environment for them."
Yeagley said that she is not advocating censoring the Daily Lobo's choice of advertisers or the content of the newspaper, but believes that there should be some form of regulation.
"I think there should be some form of responsibility in the media," Yeagley said. "The media can't continue to do what it has to in order to profit. I'm tired of that."
