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UNL bookstore's beer coupons fall flat
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN - An off-campus bookstore and a local restaurant chain on Wednesday killed a promotion offering a coupon for free beer to University of Nebraska-Lincoln students shopping for textbooks.
The privately owned Nebraska Bookstore had marked the return of students to school by handing out coupons good for a beer or a discount on buffalo wings at Brewsky's Food and Spirits.
But when university officials objected, both companies decided to cancel the offer.
"Our company does not condone underage drinking," said Barry Major, chief operating officer of Nebraska Book Co., which owns the bookstore at 1300 Q St.
"The university brought it to our attention, and the coupons were withdrawn," he said. "We're not offering them any more."
The bookstore was hoping to attract more business. Brewsky's Food and Spirits hoped to get its new Haymarket-area outlet off to a fast start, said co-owner Brian Kitten.
But Linda Major, director of NU Directions, the university's 5-year-old program to curb heavy drinking, thinks the coupons and the newspaper ads, fliers and sandwich boards touting the offer were sending the wrong message.
"Beer and books go together . . . (and) that's what this is communicating," said Major, who is not related to the bookstore executive. "A big part of our program is to disentangle alcohol from the college experience."
Binge drinking at the university has dropped from 62 percent of students surveyed in 1997 to 50 percent last year.
Nebraska's legal drinking age is 21.
At Brewsky's, co-owner Kitten said he thinks his restaurant group and the bookstore had handled the beer coupon offer properly.
"No one's going to come with 20 coupons for 20 free drinks," he said before canceling the promotion. "You get a coupon when you buy textbooks. . . . I guess you could make six trips to get six coupons, but I don't think anyone's going to do that."
Kitten said his advertising agency, Archrival Inc. of Lincoln, which also represents the bookstore, put the two companies together to arrange the promotion. Neither one paid the other any kind of fee.
Charles Hull, president of Archrival, acknowledged his role in the promotion but said it was up to his clients to say how they felt it was going.
Before the promotion was canceled, Kitten said he expected the bookstore to hand out about 10,000 coupons by the end of this week.
The coupons were to have been good through Sept. 19. For underage students or those who preferred not to drink, the coupons also could be used to knock $2 off the price of an order of buffalo wings.
Brian Cartier, executive director of the National Association of College Stores, an Ohio-based trade association, said he has never heard of a promotion like the Nebraska Bookstore's, though other stores may have tried.
The offer may be unique, but associating books with beer is not. Online bookstore ecampus.com urges students to sell their textbooks for beer money.
UNL bookstore's beer coupons fall flat
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN - An off-campus bookstore and a local restaurant chain on Wednesday killed a promotion offering a coupon for free beer to University of Nebraska-Lincoln students shopping for textbooks.
The privately owned Nebraska Bookstore had marked the return of students to school by handing out coupons good for a beer or a discount on buffalo wings at Brewsky's Food and Spirits.
But when university officials objected, both companies decided to cancel the offer.
"Our company does not condone underage drinking," said Barry Major, chief operating officer of Nebraska Book Co., which owns the bookstore at 1300 Q St.
"The university brought it to our attention, and the coupons were withdrawn," he said. "We're not offering them any more."
The bookstore was hoping to attract more business. Brewsky's Food and Spirits hoped to get its new Haymarket-area outlet off to a fast start, said co-owner Brian Kitten.
But Linda Major, director of NU Directions, the university's 5-year-old program to curb heavy drinking, thinks the coupons and the newspaper ads, fliers and sandwich boards touting the offer were sending the wrong message.
"Beer and books go together . . . (and) that's what this is communicating," said Major, who is not related to the bookstore executive. "A big part of our program is to disentangle alcohol from the college experience."
Binge drinking at the university has dropped from 62 percent of students surveyed in 1997 to 50 percent last year.
Nebraska's legal drinking age is 21.
At Brewsky's, co-owner Kitten said he thinks his restaurant group and the bookstore had handled the beer coupon offer properly.
"No one's going to come with 20 coupons for 20 free drinks," he said before canceling the promotion. "You get a coupon when you buy textbooks. . . . I guess you could make six trips to get six coupons, but I don't think anyone's going to do that."
Kitten said his advertising agency, Archrival Inc. of Lincoln, which also represents the bookstore, put the two companies together to arrange the promotion. Neither one paid the other any kind of fee.
Charles Hull, president of Archrival, acknowledged his role in the promotion but said it was up to his clients to say how they felt it was going.
Before the promotion was canceled, Kitten said he expected the bookstore to hand out about 10,000 coupons by the end of this week.
The coupons were to have been good through Sept. 19. For underage students or those who preferred not to drink, the coupons also could be used to knock $2 off the price of an order of buffalo wings.
Brian Cartier, executive director of the National Association of College Stores, an Ohio-based trade association, said he has never heard of a promotion like the Nebraska Bookstore's, though other stores may have tried.
The offer may be unique, but associating books with beer is not. Online bookstore ecampus.com urges students to sell their textbooks for beer money.
