POV: You're a part of a student services organization at the University of Miami, and the start of homecoming weekend is days away (November 5-6).
As part of an initiative with the Sandler Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Education and the campus' Panhellenic Association chapter, you and your peers brainstorm ways to bring social awareness to the issue of substance abuse.
It's a timely campaign, to be sure, especially with such a big party weekend on the horizon. And, after all, this is Miami, home of the Cocaine Cowboys. Your solution? No Coke November: an effort to encourage students to abstain from cocaine and other drugs for the duration of the month. Then you decide Garfield — that endearingly irreverent bastard! — is just the kind of spokesperson the campaign needs.
So you print a bunch of T-shirts featuring the messaging points ("DRIVING HIGH IS A DUI," "COCAINE MIXED WITH ALCOHOL IS A FATAL COMBINATION," "UNPRESCRIBED ADDERALL USE HURTS GPA" and "I HATE DRUGS AND MONDAYS") along with Garfield's dour orange face, and plug the giveaway on Instagram.
"Tomorrow at 10AM we'll be outside of Lakeside Lobby A with @umpanhellenic and kick off #nocokenovember!!" the caption on the November 5 post reads. "Tag a friend in the comments to make sure you don't miss out on our new MERCH before it's too late!"
Unfortunately, however, last weekend's deluge washes out the event.
Undaunted, the Sandler Center pivots, advertising a T-shirt giveaway: "Due to weather, the event today at lakeside is postponed. BUT we're not gonna let a little rain stop us from doing a giveaway! Comment one way you're gonna stay safe this homecoming weekend to enter a raffle to win a Garfield shirt! Happy Homecoming 'Canes!"
Instagram posts promoting the No Coke November T-shirt giveaway have since been deleted.
Screenshot via Instagram
"I won't be doing coke because I've never done coke but I love to see Garfield saying no to coke since we all know he has a huge cocaine addiction so I just really want a shirt."
"I will stay away from the ducks on campus."
"I will stay safe this weekend by staying in my dorm and crying all weekend from this orgo exam I have today."
Then the #NoCokeNovember campaign starts attracting scores of comments from people outside of UM who wanted to get in on the T-shirt action.
Less than an hour after New Times reaches out to both student groups to talk about the initiative and its response, the two posts referencing the event on the Sandler Instagram page are deleted. Neither group has responded to emails on Monday from New Times seeking interviews.
And with that, #NoCokeNovember appears to be over almost as soon as it began.
Before the posts were deleted, however, an inquiring commenters want to know: "Just to be clear, what's the policy outside of November?"
