Example of scholarly work

1. Running head: KEEP YOUR DREAMS ALIVE 1
Keep Your Dreams Alive: Don't Let Binge Drinking Crush Them
Nick Cesena
National University

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Abstract
This document thoroughly explains how binge drinking threatens the safety of college students
and their surrounding communities. In this particular study, students ages 18-25 were closely
examined. A substantial amount of research indicated that students 18-25 are the most likely to
engage in binge drinking, as a result this document will specifically focus on that age group.
Additionally, this paper will reveal the negative consequences that follow binge drinking and
how it is detrimentally impacting the college environment.
Strategies that will help raise awareness, persuade, and change the behavior of college students
will also be revealed. Primarily this will be accomplished by conducting powerful messages that
resonate with the target market. The advertising messages embedded in this document attempt to
appeal directly to the basic human want and need for safety and social belonging.
Additionally, the document will also touch on which information outlets should be used and how
to strategically approach each one. The most note worthy aspect this advertising campaign calls
for is to have wrecked cars placed in key locations on campus. The cars sought by the campaign
are strictly to be ones where death did not occur. Additionally, the disfigured vehicle must be one
that a college student 18-25 totaled as a result of binge drinking.
Lastly, this document explains how the campaign aims to assess itself. This will be accomplished
by gathering relevant information that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign. The
campaign will obtain this information from social media, student surveys, and by gathering
statistics from local law enforcement agencies.

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Literature Review
Binge Drinking Defined
To gain a better understand of the topic at hand, it is important to clarify what binge
drinking is. Binge drinking is considered the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a
short amount of time. More specifically, The National Institution on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism (NIAAA) (2017) defines binge drinking as, "a pattern of drinking where a person's
blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reaches 0.08 g/ld."
Widespread Acceptance of Binge Drinking by College Students
Binge drinking is a common practice among college students. The Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Administration (2013) reported that, "among young adults aged 18 to 25 in 2013,
the rate of binge drinking was 37.9 percent" (pg.17). In a separate article, McMurtrie (2014)
wrote that, "The binge-drinking rate among college students has hovered above 40 percent for
two decades, and signs are that partying is getting even harder." In a separate study conducted by
NIAAA (2013), showed that 50% of college students binge drink on average once every two
weeks. What can be deduced from these findings is that binge drinking clearly is common place
among college students.
Types of Students Who Drink
The average age for college students who binge drink is 18 to 25. Research from The
Addiction Center from Rehab to Recovery showed that the students that are at the highest risk to
engage in binge drinking are fraternity and sorority members (2015). The College Parents of
America (CPA) (2006) supports this claim by stating that, "drinking rates are highest in
fraternities and sororities, followed by on-campus housing (e.g., dormitories, residence halls).

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Students who live independently off-site (e.g., in apartments) drink less, while commuting
students who live with their families drink the least."
Negative Effects of Binge Drinking
Binge drinking has resulted in extremely negative consequences for college students who
choose to engage in the activity. Death, injury, and sexual assault are among the worst
occurrences that are followed by binge drinking. NIAAA (2017) reported that students between
18 and 24 who binge drink are responsible for 1,825 deaths each year, many of which are motor-
vehicle related crashes. Additionally, NIAAA (2017) reported that each year approximately
696,000 students between the ages 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been
binge drinking. Evidences suggest many students face legal trouble as a result of their actions
related to binge drinking. According to CPA (2006), roughly "110,000 students between the ages
of 18 and 24 are arrested for an alcohol-related violation such as public drunkenness or driving
under the influence." NIAAA (2017) also finds that each year roughly 97,000 students between
the ages 18 and 24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. The negative
effects associated with binge drinking clearly pose a significant threat to the safety of college
students. Additionally, because the behavior just discussed is punishable by law, if a student gets
caught, it could end their college career permanently.
Copy Platform
The Goal: Get universities to declare Binge Drinking Awareness Month.
The Message: This campaign has two messages, one for the opinion leaders it wishes to obtain,
and one for the entire student body. For the opinion leaders, the message is, let's keep our
community safe and protect out students. The message for students looks at safety too, however
it also aims to touch on the fact that, because all students have dreams and are aspiring to have

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successful careers, don't let alcohol destroy your future. Therefore the message this campaign
wants to use is: Keep your dreams alive, don't let binge drinking crush them.
The Groups Targeted by The Campaign
This creative brief is intend to capture the attention of male and female college students
between the ages 18 and 25. Additionally, this campaign aims to target leadership groups and the
entire faculty on college campuses. The scope of this campaign intends to raise awareness and
reveal the dangers associated with binge drinking. Additionally, what this campaign seeks to
accomplish is changing the behavior of both students and faculty, by directly attempting to alter
the current environment found on college campuses.
The Strategy The Campaign Aims to Follow
Use advertising to help create change through the use of persuasion, aimed at changing
behavior, by creatively constructing a strong message the target market is willing to believe. Due
to the nature that binge drinking poses a significant threat to the safety of society, this campaign
believes that it can appeal to the basic human want and need for safety. According to Arens,
Weigold, and Arens (2012), "Maslow maintained that safety is one of the dominating factors that
dictates human behavior" (pg. 160). As a result, this campaign intends to use this as a tactical
approach to persuade the college environment that binge drinking poses a serious threat to
society.
If the message is accurately delivered to the target audience, this campaign believes that
it can create a desire for belonging and a sense of morale among students on campus. This
touches on the social level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs which discuses the human want and
need for belonging. This campaign also intends to educate students about the dangers binge
drinking poses by using motivational techniques found in Bandurar's social cognitive theory of

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learning. Arens, Weigold, and Arens (2012), said that, "When individuals in our environment
(called models by Bandura) experience good outcomes, we are motivated to try the behavior that
led to them. When they experience bad outcomes, we are motivated to avoid the behaviors that
led to them" (pg. 155). As a result, this campaign intends to highlight the bad outcomes related to
binge drinking to discourage student from engaging in the activity.
Recommendations
Implementation
In order to effectively implement this advertising campaign, it's extremely important to
acquiring an opinion leader that is likely to make an impactful difference and build momentum
behind the campaign. According to Arens, Weigold, and Arens (2012), "An opinion leader is
some person or organization whose beliefs or attitudes are respected by people who share an
interest in some specific activity" (pg. 164). In advertising, opinion leaders are selectively chosen
to help convey a message, because they are often thought to have a sound opinion that people are
more incline to believe. In order to effectively persuade the opinion leaders the campaign will
highlight the dangers posed by binge drinking and the negative effects it has had among college
students and the surrounding community. Once the problem is understood, the next objective is
to provide the solution through the use of advertising.
Opinion Leaders The Campaign Seeks to Acquire
 President of University
 School Leadership groups/faculty
 Sorority and Fraternity Presidents
Advertising Outlets Recommended to ReachStudent Body
 School News paper,

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 Kiosks
 Social Media
 Painted (Crushed) Vehicles
SuggestedApproach Toward Aforementioned Advertising Outlets
Use the social level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to help build communities that
students want to be a part of. In order to accomplish this, the campaign recommends creating an
online community by constructing a Facebook page where individuals can get informed about
the issue and engage with others about the subject. Another great way to build a sense of
belonging and spread awareness of the campaign, is to handout free wristbands at kiosks students
can wear. Students would wear these wristbands during binge drinking awareness month to show
they support the notion behind keeping campus safe by pledging not to binge drink. The
wristbands could be extremely effective in spreading awareness because, if students see other
students wearing the wristbands, it might spark their curiosity, which leads directly to the
message the advertising campaign aims to deliver. Additionally, the campaign hopes that the
more students that wear the wristbands, it will increase the likelihood other will want to as well,
to feel a sense of social belonging. Another suggestion is to have faculty members wear the
wristbands. The reason the campaign wants faculty member to wear the wristbands is because
research from, Umbach and Wawrzynski (2004) showed that ,"faculty behaviors and attitudes
affect students profoundly, which suggests that faculty members may play the single-most
important role in student learning." The idea here, is that by wearing the wristbands the
professors are projecting the attitude that binge drinking is dangerous.
Another recommendation is to place the kiosks next to the painted (crushed) vehicles to
help portray the big idea behind the campaign. Arnes, Weigold, and Arens (2012), define the big

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idea as, "The flash of creative insight—the bold advertising initiative—that captures the essence
of the strategy in an imaginative, involving way and brings the subject to life to make the reader
stop, look, and listen" (pg. 317). In order to accomplish this, the campaign wants to bring cars
onto campus that were in serious accidents, (not deadly), and place them in strategic locations
where students can't help but notice them. It is also recommended that the words, "Keep Your
Dreams Alive, Don't Let Binge Drinking Crush Them", strategically be placed next to the
disfigured vehicles. This way the advertising message strongly matches the visual, which in this
case is the car. It is also important that these vehicles are legally seized from college students
between the ages 18 and 25 as a result of binge drinking. The primary reason for this, is because
this campaign believes that it would really bring the subject to life and that it will cause people to
stop look and listen.
It is also highly advised to, strategically place the kiosks/information booths, next to the
totaled vehicles to help inform students of the severity of the issue. The campaign believes this is
the best place to embed Bandura's social cognitive theory, and use the totaled car as a means to
visually demonstrate a realistic negative outcome that binge drinking caused. Additionally, the
wrecked car would seek to discourage students from making a similar mistake. The mangled
vehicle would also aim to touch on Maslow's want and need of safety, to demonstrate to students
how binge drinking is dangerous.
It is also suggested that periodically schools print ads on the front page of their
newspaper reminding students of the dangers associated to binge drinking. An example could be
running real stories that demonstrate negative consequences associated to binge drinking. A
headline could be, "Binge Drinking Sends Michigan State Student To Jail", the article could
further explain how the individual went to jail for assaulting another student because they were

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intoxicated. The article could also highlight additional negative consequence the student faced
such as expulsion. Posting stories like this on the school social media page is also recommended.
The campaign believes that continuing to reinforce the message is extremely important
especially when its drawn from real life scenarios that highlight the dangers of the existing
problem.
Evaluation
Measuring the Success of Campaign
This campaign believes that it is best to target schools that have on campus living
environments, as well as fraternity and sorority groups. These two groups are the most important
to reach because they are the most incline to binge drink. If the campaign wants to most
accurately measure its success, it must target these groups and assess their reaction to the
campaign. Closely evaluating these groups is imperative in determining what elements of the
campaign are effective and which aspects are flawed, and it will ultimately assist marketers in
fine tuning the entirety of the campaign.
Post-testing Measurements
 Survey Students - Example: Ask where was the first place they noticed the message
associated to this campaign? Was it the car, the wristbands, etcetera.
 Monitor Social Media - Example: How many likes, followers, shares is the binge
drinking page getting.
 View binge drinking related statistics and compare from previous year - Obtain these
from local law enforcement agencies that are in the surrounding area of the university.
Determine whether or not the percentages of crimes related to binge drinking in this age group

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(18-25), went down. Monitor them on a monthly basis and compare them to the same month of
the previous year.
Conclusion
In order for this campaign to be successful, it absolutely must gain the support of at least
one of the targeted opinion leader mentioned in this brief. The influential power these individuals
or groups possess on campus is immense. It is for this reason that it is imperative to convince
these individuals that binge drinking poses a significant threat to the safety of our society as a
whole. As it stand right now, there are not enough people taking this issue seriously. However, if
one university is willing to follow the suggestions put forth by this campaign, it is possible it
could set a precedent that changes the face of the college environment as we know it, and one
that other schools will inevitably follow.

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References
Alcohol facts and statistics. (2017, February ). Retrieved February 15, 2017, from
https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol-facts-
and-statistics
Arens, W. F., Weigold, M. F., & Arens, C. (2012). Contemporary advertising: And integrated
marketing communications (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Harvard, A., & study. (2015, November 25). Drinking and drug abuse in Greek life. Retrieved
February 5, 2017, from https://www.addictioncenter.com/college/drinking-drug-abuse-
greek-life
Kelly, K., & Stanley, L. (2014). Identifying upstream factors using the community readiness
model. Journal of Social Marketing, 4(2), 176–191. doi:10.1108/jsocm-08-2013-0055
Mcmurtrie, B. (2014, December 19). Why colleges haven’t stopped binge
drinking. U.S. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/us/why-colleges-
havent-stopped-binge-drinking.html?_r=0
Parents. (2006, July 31). Student statistics on alcohol consumption and abuse. Retrieved
February 4, 2017, from http://collegeparents.org/2006/07/31/student-statistics-alcohol-
consumption-and-abuse/
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 2013 National Survey
on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Page 17 Summary of National Findings. Retrieved
February 3, 2017, from
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHresultsPDFWHTML2013/Web/
NSDUHresults2013.pdf

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Umbach, P., & Wawrzynski, M. (2004). Faculty do matter: The role of college faculty in student
learning and engagement. Retrieved February 5, 2017, from
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Faculty-Do-Matter-the-Role-of-College-Faculty-
in-Umbach-Wawrzynski/35961c1d2a34f28cb90c759d9f0c30954a4362eb