Commons Campaigns
Mikayla Pate
Preston Phillips
Alex Feekin
Nicole Ochal
The problem (exigence) that we have found is present both within the city of Lincoln, as well as on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the effects and consequences of alcohol. The presence of drunk driving is a problem that needs to be addressed. We have found this to be a huge problem because it puts so many people in danger, especially when there are safer alternatives available to students. We attempted to address the student population at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Problems did arise during our project, although we didn’t really face a population of students who were unwilling to participate in any surveys regarding this topic. We did have a problem of actually getting the student population to participate in our campaign. It was hard to “break through the clutter.” By creating an online survey we were able to allow students to keep a sense of anonymity, since in-person surveys may create a judgemental atmosphere. We did in fact face students who are unwilling to visit our facebook page and “Like” it. We also faced problems of students not responding to the cups, they may have not noticed them or they may have gotten thrown away by staff prior to being exposed to students. Our proposal had the opportunity to help put an end to drunk driving by the students of University of Nebraska-Lincoln and inform them of the consequences of alcohol.
Drunk driving is an awful practice that too many of our Nebraska residents participate in. This greatly affects our students, and we aim to stop and prevent this practice by UNL students. In 2003, the state of Nebraska had over 9,000 arrests that involved driving while intoxicated. There were over 31,000 vehicle crashes that involved an intoxicated driver. This resulted in over 200 deaths. This is exactly why we needed to address the topic of consumption of alcohol by students on our campus. We tried to create an inventive/creative approach to this problem, we needed to have a good structure, we needed to draw from stylistic elements, make our project memorable, and figure out the best medium of delivery. Our approach took a common product associated with alcohol and used it to send an educational and informational message that was seen immediately and that had the opportunity to continue to have an effect through social media. Our proposal was unique and unfortunately did not get us the results we are looking for. We had an organizational process that made it so the people that took the survey had full privacy, with a judgment free environment. Our goal was to learn what problems regarding alcohol consumption existed and we addressed them with either an alternative or educational facts. We utilized something that students are actually interested in, something that the recognized and that they associated with the topic at hand. We didn’t start with a specific goal, we planned to examine our survey results and pick the most pressing problem(s) to address. The style we used allowed us to directly reach out to the student population. Our structure was very tailored, as we had a set plan that contained a survey, compiling results, analyzing the situation and creating a way to address the specific problems regarding alcohol use. The only way that we could make this campaign memorable, was if we carefully directed it to students on a personal level, and make them think about how their actions affect others. Our project was memorable because we are focused on an issue that greatly affects the student population; our project did have ability to make a real difference on this campus, but unfortunately didn’t grow to the scale that we had hoped due to a variety of reasons. We utilized the following types of media: social media, and “guerilla” advertising.
Our survey ran for 2 weeks and got 75 responses. We had a total of 21 questions which allowed for us to get a variety of data about alcohol consumption by UNL students. Our survey titled “Drinking at UNL” alerted us to a variety of problems related to drinking on the UNL campus. 89.6% of respondents stated that they do drink alcohol. Over 70% of respondents claimed that they were under the age of 21. Over 60% of respondents stated that they drink 1-3 times per week. The majority of alcohol consumption takes place at parties: 72.4% of respondents stated that the main place that they consume alcohol is at a party. 77% percent of respondents stated that they try to have a designated driver prior to drinking. 15% of respondents stated that they plan on driving after drinking alcohol. Over 40% stated that they do not generally plan a ride home prior to drinking. 59% stated that they have previously driven after consuming alcoholic beverages. 64% of respondents claimed that they did not ever feel comfortable driving after drinking. 14% claimed that they felt safe driving a short distance of under one mile after drinking. 10% claimed they felt safe driving up to five miles. Nearly 2% claimed they felt safe driving 5-10 miles. Nearly 9% claimed that they felt safe driving over 10 miles after drinking. 12.5% of respondents claimed that they have driving after drinking in the last week. 7% claimed that they have driven after drinking in the last month. On average, students believe it takes between 2-5 drinks per hour until they believe that they are “drunk” (or unable to drive).44% of respondents believe that it takes at least 2-3 drinks per hour will make you intoxicated. 38.5% believe it takes at least 3-5 drinks per hour to become intoxicated. Respondents claimed that over 60% did not feel safe driving after 1-6 drinks. Over 23% claimed that they never felt “unsafe” driving, even after more than 9 drinks. After drinking, over 11% claimed that they felt safe driving immediately after consuming alcohol. 25% claimed that they felt safe driving after waiting 1 hour after drinking. 64% claimed they felt safe after waiting 2 or more hours after drinking. The majority of respondents claimed that they felt that “feeling the alcohol” “not being able to walk straight” “slurred speech” and “vomiting” were signs of being “drunk”. UNL offers an emergency ride program known as 475-RIDE. Over 75% of students do not know about this program. Students have stated that they get the majority of their information about the programs that UNL has from other students, social media and fliers/posters.
With that information we created 4 cup designs that would inform and educate students on the topics that they were least informed about. The first cup design was simply “www.facebook.com/whatitreallytakes”. This was to simply direct students to our page out of curiosity, in hopes that they would “like” our page and then learn about alcohol and it’s effects and consequences through our Facebook page. The second cup had “What can happen with a DUI?” written in large letters. surrounding that text a variety of consequences were written on the cup. We included the lesser known results of a DUI. We included that it can stay on background checks, prevent you from gaining employment, result in higher insurance rates, result in the loss of a drivers license for years, result in mandatory alcohol education classes.The third cup focused on transportation after drinking. This was to help students realize that driving under the influence does have real consequences. Most students were unaware of what really happened when you got a DUI. The main text read “Drinking and driving isn’t the only option.” Around that text, there were a variety of ways that one can get home if too intoxicated to drive. Uber,Lyft, taxis, friends,family and 475-Ride were all listed modes of transportation. The goal of this cup was to offer students an alternative to driving drunk. The last set of cup focused on how many drinks it takes to become legally intoxicated. This cups main text read “It only takes 3-4 drinks per hour to become legally intoxicated.” It also had the servings of alcohol, 1 drink= 12oz Beer, 5oz Wine, or 1.5oz liquor. This cup was intended to allow students to really learn and become educated about how much alcohol it really takes to become drunk or become legally intoxicated. From our survey results, we learned that students are very uneducated about the signs of being intoxicated and how many drinks it really takes. Each cup also had the facebook page listed it on it as well. There were over 250 cups that have been placed throughout the student union and library. 
The Facebook page had more in depth information on alcohol consumption. The posts included a chart that assisted people with finding out approximately how many drinks it would take for them to be legally intoxicated. Additional information regarding DUI’s and the 475-RIDE program were also available. There was a new post at least every other day, the posts were relevant, and interesting. Posts included pictures, charts and links. We chose to create a campaign that allowed to reach people on multiple levels. With Facebook we were hoping that we would be able to capture students attention just once, to get them to “Like” our page. Once they “liked” our page, we would be able to communicate to them. With social media, we are able to open up 2 way communication. We aren’t just handing things out or sending out information, we are giving students a chance to have an actual conversation, and a place where they can ask questions, participate in discussion and learn about alcohol consumption.
If we were to change something about this project, we would have gotten permission from the ASUN to create and run an entire comprehensive advertising campaign about the 475-Ride program. This was our original plan, but we were unable to obtain permission to do so. Something that could have improved the campaign is the addition of cups. We were unable to get our donation request for additional cups approved, we were able to purchase 250 cups that we placed around campus. With more cups we would have been able to educate more students and have cups in a wider variety of locations on campus, including East campus and dorms. We learned that it is a lot harder to “Break through the clutter” and actually reach the audience. We learned that there has been so many different programs that focus on safe driving yet there are still a high number of individuals that drive intoxicated.
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