Professor Shah and TA Bret Shaw assigned students to develop either an advertising campaign for beer, or a social marketing program to reduce high-risk drinking. The 250 students formed 50 teams of five students each. Half were assigned to develop advertising campaigns for Miller Lite Beer. Avoiding the traditional lecture and test format, Shah and Shaw decided to inject direct doses of ethics, social responsibility and social marketing and persuasion into the class. Each team produced messages for a variety of delivery channels, including direct marketing, promotions, public relations, television, radio, print and the Internet.
Students fear being embarrassed and getting arrested.
Students like members of the opposite sex. When students compose the messages Students' approaches to the assignment were diverse. Other ads linked the consequences of binge drinking to social success, such as one showing an attractive female student frowning at her drunken date who is asleep, drooling. Competition raised the bar, as students knew their peers were creating ads for the opposing viewpoint. Six teams were selected to present their campaigns complete with music, slides, videos, charts and graphs to their classmates and to RWJ project coordinator Adsit, who took notes at the final presentations.