Bernie Machen can't make up his mind about drinking.
Budweiser planned on releasing a number of "Fan Cans" in university colors for the start of college football season. One of the cans was set to be in orange and blue until Machen intervened on the basis that the promotion associated UF with drinking.
A quick look around the UF Bookstore, though, reveals a veritable industry revolving around the use of UF's colors and logo to peddle alcohol paraphernalia. Shot glasses, wine stoppers and Pilsner glasses can be found plastered with the Gators insignia and the colors whose sanctity Machen said he was so intent on preserving.
Apart from the paraphernalia, UF offers a leisure course in bartending. Granted, the course has an age requirement, but the bookstore items can be used by anyone, including underage drinkers. It seems contradictory to try to disassociate UF from its party-school reputation and not have any qualms about teaching UF students how to channel their inner Tom Cruise in "Cocktail."
If Machen wants to take a hard stance against drinking, so be it. He should, however, follow through in all situations, including ones UF stands to profit from. We think Machen's stance is extreme and unnecessary. Remember the collective container fiasco from last year? What about the proposed crackdown on drinking at the UF-Georgia game? We would like to see some consistency from him at the least.
Underage students are going to drink on game day and every other day, too.
Machen's theory that Fan Cans promote underage drinking is analogous to saying that 19- and 20-year-olds are more susceptible to color imagery than 21-year-olds or that Obama's beer summit will encourage drinking among diplomats. The cans might make Budweiser's sales go up in Gainesville around game day, but they would have zero effect on the number of underage drinkers.
Hell, if anything the can would be more appealing to the alumni who arrive in Gainesville with 97 different types of Gators merchandise plastered all over their Suburbans than to a kid who wouldn't even question the "drinkability" of a partially-fermented Capri Sun.
Besides, Budweiser has already advertised in Gainesville. A billboard by Original Pizza Palace on 13th Street displayed an ice-cold Bud with the text "game day drinkability" in huge, white font all through the last football season.
What's the difference between a billboard and a can? How can the UF Bookstore sell so many products that promote drinking, while a Budweiser can with orange and blue colors crosses some sort of nebulously defined line? How can UF be against drinking culture while they offer a class that promotes drinking culture?
Apparently Bernie Machen is the only one who can make these reconcile.
Machen needs to recognize that changing the colors of a beer can isn't going to transform a Puritan into a binge drinker, but mostly he needs to either back down from his attempts to curtail drinking or pursue them enough that they can actually coalesce into an easily recognizable stance.
