2008 Woodie Awards
Letter: URI student upset with sandwich shop giveaways, marketing on campus
Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
02/26/08 - To the Cigar, I picked a coupon up off the ground.
It was from Subway sandwich shops and it said in big bold letters, "FREE SUB!" The fine print said, "When you apply for a credit card."
It's bad enough I have to take out loans to attend this university, but now I have corporate America teaming up to send me plummeting into debt while choking on an obscenely oversized grinder.
And why is it the only other ads I see adorning the walls are military recruiting posters? Is that what we're here for? To be subjected to as much marketing as humanly possible before we go blind?
I for one am at my limit.
Every two weeks there's a blood drive. They offer you a slice of pizza for your pints.
But if you needed a transfusion and you showed up at the hospital with a slice of pizza in your hand and no insurance, you might as well dig your own grave. I realize my time here at school is valuable, but I am wondering to whom it is more important?
It seems that the eyes of students are commodity for the school to trade.
I wouldn't mind so much if the ads were at least a bit tasteful, or had a modicum of style; I mean the army has been using the same slogans since World War II. Couldn't they spruce it up a little?
Subway and Visa have teamed up to ruin my financial future, so why don't the Rhode Island Blood-Bank and the U.S. army join marketing forces to finish me off?
Here's a fresh idea for them: Paratroopers and Blood Drives, "Good to the Last Drop."
At the very least they could offer me a two-course meal, you know, like a last supper.
I can't wait until I see fliers advertising an all-out organ harvest in the union:
"Come one, come all; bring your best kidneys and spleens while they're still fresh, you are pre-approved to donate! If you act right now you'll get a free cup of Jell-O for every second lung you give. Be sure to ask about our frequent departure card, you can earn points that are good towards a tomb or a mortgage, take your pick!"
Jeffrey Andreoni
It was from Subway sandwich shops and it said in big bold letters, "FREE SUB!" The fine print said, "When you apply for a credit card."
It's bad enough I have to take out loans to attend this university, but now I have corporate America teaming up to send me plummeting into debt while choking on an obscenely oversized grinder.
And why is it the only other ads I see adorning the walls are military recruiting posters? Is that what we're here for? To be subjected to as much marketing as humanly possible before we go blind?
I for one am at my limit.
Every two weeks there's a blood drive. They offer you a slice of pizza for your pints.
But if you needed a transfusion and you showed up at the hospital with a slice of pizza in your hand and no insurance, you might as well dig your own grave. I realize my time here at school is valuable, but I am wondering to whom it is more important?
It seems that the eyes of students are commodity for the school to trade.
I wouldn't mind so much if the ads were at least a bit tasteful, or had a modicum of style; I mean the army has been using the same slogans since World War II. Couldn't they spruce it up a little?
Subway and Visa have teamed up to ruin my financial future, so why don't the Rhode Island Blood-Bank and the U.S. army join marketing forces to finish me off?
Here's a fresh idea for them: Paratroopers and Blood Drives, "Good to the Last Drop."
At the very least they could offer me a two-course meal, you know, like a last supper.
I can't wait until I see fliers advertising an all-out organ harvest in the union:
"Come one, come all; bring your best kidneys and spleens while they're still fresh, you are pre-approved to donate! If you act right now you'll get a free cup of Jell-O for every second lung you give. Be sure to ask about our frequent departure card, you can earn points that are good towards a tomb or a mortgage, take your pick!"
Jeffrey Andreoni