Conflict of Interest or Good Marketing?

VOCATIV posted a controversial article recently on its website—see http://www.vocativ.com/culture/society/college-jello-shots/#!bO7SmR—suggesting, Colleges Profit by Getting Students Drunk off Jell-O Shots.  If you read the article, you get the impression that the institutions involved intentionally licensed their logos intending their use as “Jell-o shot cups”; the good news is that this was not the case.  Indeed, Kraft did secure permission to use school logos and create individualized Jell-O molds, likely for a licensing fee, but not with the intent of producing Jell-O shots

for tailgating.  Their intent in licensing the use of their logo was much the same as the reasoning behind T-shirts, hats, sports bottles, stadium blankets, and various sundry other items.

That said, the VOCATIV article does raise an interesting question: does a conflict of interest exist, however inadvertently, when institutions with serious and stringent alcohol policies, especially policies that are consistently enforced, license merchandise that directly or indirectly is associated with drinking in general and high-risk drinking specifically? What does it say to a prospective high school student touring campus who makes the obligatory stop at the campus bookstore and sees an array of shot glasses, beer mugs/scooners…and Jell-O molds?  And although Jell-O molds with the school logo at the bottom are apparently similar "innocent novelties," few are the students of any age who do not know of Jell-O shots and the recipes to make them – see http://www.kegworks.com/company/jello-shot-recipes for one of 2,670,000 Google hits when searching “Jell-O, shots, recipes.” 

So the original question remains, do such innocent novelties represent a conflict of interest for the institution with strict alcohol policies?  Should such “paraphernalia” be relegated to the online catalogue for the campus bookstore or is the display of such novelties innocent enough to avoid consideration as a “conflict of interest” and scrutiny of AOD prevention advocates?  Is the decision by some to divert the use of what many prevention specialists advocate, the use of a shot glass to measure a serving of alcohol when pouring drinks, sufficient cause to question the sale of such “paraphernalia” in the campus bookstore?

As we all know from our life experiences to date, rarely are things “just” what they seem to be on the surface or at first glance; what do you think?

Dr. Robert