Student government reveals campaign promoting classy fan behavior

Media Credit: Kai-Huei Yau Brad Soulas, a copywriter for Allen Hall Advertising, discusses the new ad campaign to encourage classy fan behavior at next year's football and men's basketball games as Athletic Department Finance Committee Senator Kyle McKenzie looks on.

It took six months for the student government to complete its campaign targeting unruly fans at football and men's basketball games, but on Monday afternoon student officials met with the Allen Hall Advertising agency to reveal how the will combat out-of-line spectators next year.

The final product: Entertainment and humor that will "subtly slip in the fact that 'you know these morals,'" AHA copywriter Brad Soulas said.

The University set a record this past football season when police escorted 70 unruly fans from an Autzen Stadium during the Nov. 19 Civil War game. In response, University President Dave Frohnmayer said at a meeting with student government representatives that fans were increasingly violent and out of hand. The student officials then took it upon themselves to address the issue and target students directly with a classy behavior advertising campaign.

It took months of planning, several debates and a veto from the ASUO president before the ASUO awarded $2,500 from student fees to the campaign.

Leaflets handed out with student tickets, ads in the Emerald, posters around campus and a banner at MacArthur Court will remind students that "it's a group effort" to be respectful.

Included in the leaflets will be slogans such as "We're all in this together. It's like a packed car - if one person farts, we all have to deal with it" and "It's like a run-on sentence - you can do it but you won't get away with it."

A 4-by-24 banner will hang in McArthur Court next year with a picture of a Pit Crew member bowing down to a Ducks sign. It says "respect" across the side of the banner.

Shying away from a more authoritative approach to the problem, such as increasing security or taking away student ticket privileges from people who are kicked out of games, the Athletic Department Finance Committee and AHA thought that students talking to students was a better approach than the University administration chastising students, ADFC member Natalie Kinsey said.

Soulas said people know how to act, so the campaign is simply bringing awareness to the problem.

Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at nwilbur@dailyemerald.com

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