“Show your colors!” says Bud Light. “Put your hand around a Fan Can.”

The Indiana Daily Student reports that Anheuser Busch has agreed to stop selling the red and white version of their snazzy Fan Cans in the vicinity of Indiana University’s Bloomington campus. The Central Florida Future states that the administration there would like the company’s black and gold cans sold in the Orlando area to go away, as well, thereby ensuring that students from neither of these institutions drink beer during football games ever again.

I made that last clause up. And since the college football season began last week, and the company has not given a specific date when it will snap up the offending containers from stores near these campuses, it’s quite possible that there is some serious color-coordinated pre-, during, AND post-gaming going on, I’m just saying.

See?

(Image courtesy of tailgateapproved.com, via slashfood.com)

Universities across the country, including the University of Colorado, the University of Michigan, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M; and Boston College, have formally, legally protested since the company released its (again, snazzy) fan cans in a rainbow of traditional team colors earlier this summer. According to the articles linked above, IU and UCF’s cease and desist letters stated that the special cans encouraged underage drinking and inappropriate use of their school colors.

Friends, walk with me, if you will, back to freshman year of college. It’s difficult, I know. The journey is long and tipsy, so please do not run into a wall. Let’s just say that in 1989 I was a freshman drinking grain punch served from an industrial-sized trash can. I believe I was wearing pajamas on at least one occasion. I’m sure I was drinking from a red plastic cup, or maybe it was blue, I don’t know.

And that I’m telling you this means that I don’t mind admitting it, and I have no idea why, but carry on.

The point is, I wouldn’t have cared what color my cup – or my can – was, as then, unlike now, I didn’t care much what was in it. I had the first year gpa to prove it, therefore leading me to my conclusion that schools that go after a company for allegedly targeting their students with cans in their school colors are off-base.

Maybe they should use their legal fees to beef up student advising services. (Again, speaking from cold, hard experience.)

A lot of college students drink. If this is news to anyone, I don’t know how to help soften the blow. I don’t have even a ballpark figure so let’s just go with “a lot.” And a lot of college students go to sporting events. Anecdotal evidence and personal experience tells me that many students do these things at the same time, along with alumni and regional fans who claim they bleed their team colors. I daresay it would take an unraveling of the whole culture to change this, an unraveling that I do not believe will occur in my or your lifetime. My large, “I bleed (mostly) red and white (with a little black and gold thrown in)” alma mater, for instance, does nothing to stop tail gating on campus and should it ever try, would lose, big time.

The Wall Street Journal, NPR and other news outlets have reported on the negative reaction from universities. Michigan, for instance, has asked the the “blue and maize” cans not be sold in the entire state. Of Michigan. Which, last time I saw it on a map, was still really large. Colorado says it’s concerned about an agreement with Coors (thereby negating the “cans encourage drinking is bad” argument in at least that case.) Jay at the Brookston Beer Bulletin wrote a post about this whole shebang which (in my opinion) is on point in questioning what right schools have to claim colors at all, much less large swaths of geographic area, and asking what, if anything, can colors have to do with binge drinking and other, very real, alcohol-related struggles students have.

Because I should also note for the record that I do not condone idiotic behavior such as abusive, forced consumption of any substance or the operation of a motor vehicle while intoxicated. And I do not believe that a black and gold or red and white can is going to make those things any more likely than a garden-variety silver can.

And nor will they make certain varieties of beer taste better, but let’s just say 1989 was a long time ago, and one can, even with a background that includes trash can punch, become a bit of a snob. I’ll still be checking to see if I can get some red and white cans this season, though, before the beer police clear them out. There’s something to be said for solidarity, and old times’ sake.

~Laurie

View Original Post at draftdaysuit.com

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• College Sports
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• tailgating
• drinking
• budweiser
• fan cans