Freshman Louis Mittel walked by Tisch Library yesterday evening. Something caught his eye as he walked down the steps from the library patio: a decorated life-size cardboard cut-out of a person. Painted on the cardboard, a message read, "Got consent? Even Captain Morgan gets consent!"
"It just seems pretty bizarre," Mittel said.
Mittel's confusion is just one reaction to what is the beginning of a semester-long social marketing campaign that uses advertising strategies to address social issues. In this case, the campaign aims to foster discussion about issues including rape, drug use and alcohol use on campus.
This campaign, officially called Art for Culture Change, was mostly organized last semester by Health Services' Alcohol and Drug Program and The Women's Center's Campus Violence Prevention Project. It will use student art to address the issues.
Seven of these cardboard cutouts, six of which students created, were placed around campus Monday. On Sept. 28, the campaign will host an event with speakers and possibly a theatrical performance that will address the issues, Abels said.
She said that posters, speakers and comic strips will be placed on campus later in the semester.
Elaine Theodore, the Campus Violence Prevention Project Coordinator, does not think that the confusion that some students experienced when seeing the cut-outs is a setback.
"I think it's great that they actually took the time to look at the figure to ask themselves about the event," she said.
"The point is to get people talking about the issues on their own terms," director of the Alcohol and Drug Program Margot Abels said.
The campaign has so far cost Health Services between $5,000 and $10,000, Abels said. Expenses include paying speakers to come to campus later this semester and paying the student artists who helped with the project.
Abels said she communicated the project idea to many groups, including the Office of Student Activities and the Crafts House, to find others who wanted to get involved in the art or issue-oriented aspects of the campaign. "People are joining the project from all different motivations," she said.
Students who worked most closely on the campaign decided to center it on the theme "In the Mix," referring to the dangers of mixing drugs, alcohol and other unhealthy practices, Abels said. Not all of the cardboard cutouts address that theme, but they do share a focus on unhealthy habits and their consequences.
The goal is to get the attention of someone who is "drinking, but [is also] on Ritalin and [hasn't] slept all week," she said.
Another issue related to "In the Mix" that Abels hopes to address is how substance abuse affects sex and the "hook-up culture" at Tufts.
The campaign does not, however, address the issue of underage drinking.
"This is what in the field we call harm reduction," Abels said. "For this campaign, let's assume that you drink and you're not necessarily concerned about whether it's legal."
Whether this campaign will have significant effects on students is up for debate.
"We are just starting to look at how other campuses evaluate social marketing campaigns," Abels said.
A promotional PowerPoint slideshow cited both national surveys and Tufts surveys to show the likelihood of rape and sexual assault on campus. "The No. 1 'date rape' drug at Tufts - according to the Massachusetts State Crime Toxicology Laboratory - is any combination of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine," the slideshow read.
Jaqueline Kish (LA '06), a first year occupational graduate student and former Tufts undergraduate, feels that the cut-outs have merit as a means to incite discussion. "I think it's getting people's attention. It is sort of a visual reminder," she said. "It's something new and different on campus."
Not everyone saw the art in the same light. "I just find it kind of pointless," junior Alejandro Pi?±ero said. "We are already overexposed to warnings."
Abels said she is not overly concerned with the way Tufts students handle themselves when it comes sex, drugs and alcohol.
"I give students a lot of credit that they can make decent decisions," she said.
