UI beer partnership sends wrong message

The University of Iowa has partnered with Anheuser-Busch to fight binge drinking. What a joke. The university has given its OK for the megabeer company to use the Tigerhawk logo on posters, flags, beer cups and T-shirts.

I wonder if the Tigerhawk logo will become synonymous with Bud Light or Busch Light or the king itself, Budweiser. How can one look at this in any other way and say that this is going to help diminish binge drinking or help eradicate it? The university doesn't even allow alcohol sales at the games and in recent times has stepped up measures to ward off severely drunken individuals.

Yet, the UI logo is to be paraded around on beer cups and T-shirts, with no doubt a Bud ad of some sort on these posters, flags and other highly commercialized and profitable ways of promoting beer! How is this conducive to help prevent binge drinking?

This reminds me of a few years back when schools were paid off to have vending machines in the schools to sell pop and candy to students. They realized that they shouldn't promote junk food while profiting off it, and the UI shouldn't loan out its logo for a buck either. Look no further than the bars, streets and stadium filled with drunken college kids and adults on game day in Iowa City.

Rob Bly

Coralville