Alcohol on the College Campuses - Essay Example

1. There are several reasons due to which college students become Alcohol addicts. McGue reports that those students who consume alcohol have parents who abuse alcohol (Wanberg 223). Another reason is the way alcohol has been positioned by marketers. Marketers position alcohol as an antidepressant and fun, therefore students consume alcohol to relieve stress. Lastly, those individuals who started consuming alcohol during their early high school years have a higher chance of abusing alcohol during their college years. To reduce the consumption of alcohol, parents need to counter their substance abusive activities. Marketers need to become more responsible and stop targeting young adults and the issue of alcohol drinking among high school students should be countered so that these students do not carry on abusing alcohol during college years.
2. Advertising of alcohol has been said to be one of the major reasons due to which alcohol consumption among young adults has increased. The places where these advertisements are posted and the messages that are advertised have a major impact on alcohol consumption among college students. Breed figured out that advertisements of alcohol in newspapers of colleges are far higher than the number of other adverts (Jung 547). During 1993, Grube concluded that 2.4 alcohol advertisements were being shown between sports programs that are professional, and 1.2 alcohol advertisements were aired during sports programs that were played at the college level (Wanberg 223). During 1998 a study was conducted by The Center for Media Education which helped them in figuring out that youths were being targeted on the internet for the advertisement of alcohol (FTC 1).
3. Alcohol advertisements are placed in various magazines, newspapers, college newspapers, and the internet and sport shirts. The messages that are portrayed in these advertising includes that consumption of alcohol is sexy and or consumers are sexier. Alcohol promoted through sports uniforms such as advertising of alcohol on a professional cricket player’s shirt gives the message that alcohol is consumed by strong and popular people such as sports stars. Some advertisements over the internet show that alcohol is being consumed in parties that are being attended by young adults. This portrays that consuming alcohol is fashionable and to be with the popular crowd, one has to consume alcohol.
4. There are several methods through which responsible drinking can be promoted at college campuses. One such way is handing out flyers to college students that detail the negative effects of alcohol consumption. This will help in informing uninformed students regarding the negative impacts of alcohol consumption.

Colleges can even hold seminars regarding the negative effects of alcohol consumption and provide details regarding the issues that students may face due to consumption. This will again help in providing information to uninformed students regarding the side effects of the consumption of alcohol.

Put flyers on notice boards with pictures of people suffering from negative effects of alcohol. Pictures can have a major impact as compared to words that are written or used verbally. These pictures can make the students fell how bad it is to consume alcohol.