American professional basketball player, Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq) and The Century Council are joining forces to target binge drinking on college campuses. Shaq, who recently attended film director’s school, will work alongside college students to produce student-created videos addressing the issue of binge drinking on campus.  The inititative launched on National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week 2011 (October 16-22), with a new video message each day from Shaq about binge drinking. It will continue throughout 2012.
The Century Council has also provided grants to major universities to implement and further explore potential effectiveness of the student-generated campaigns presented at the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition. These on-campus demonstration sites include: The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (theotherhangover.com), University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa (lessthanuthink.org), The George Washington University-Washington, DC (You know. Be There) and Ohio University-Athens (You Don’t Want to Miss This). Most recently, Syracuse University (Stupid Drink) and Texas Christian University (Vitals) have also started implementation of their student-generated campaigns.