By Jamie Crutchfield, Gaia Graphics and Associates
In recent headlines there have been three rapes involving alcohol abuse in a nine-day period. Now Cal Poly university leaders are making a call for change in the university’s alcohol related “campus culture.”
The call for change is not only aimed at students who abuse alcohol and also towards bystanders who have the opportunity to speak up before a situation arises.
Gaia Graphics worked with Cal Poly’s SAFER Program (Sexual Assault Resource and Prevention) and psychology professor Shawn Burn, PhD, to create flyers to inspire students to take action to prevent alcohol abuse and potential assault among their peers.
The flyers are specific to either women or men, and are posted inside the doors of bathroom stalls to take advantage of a captive audience. Some examples of each are posted here.
The statistics on flyers is borrowed from studies conducted by Dr. Burn’s psychology class in campus wide polling. The central concept of “norm appeal” social marketing is that much of people’s behavior is influenced by their perceptions of what is “normal” or “typical” of others.
In theory, reminding students that the majority of their peers are reacting in a positive and healthy way causes them to strive to emulate that same behavior.
The technique has been successful in major national campaigns against drunk driving and smoking and now can be applied locally in preventing sexual assault and violence in San Luis Obispo.
We created about 20 Cockblocker posters – about half for women and half for men. To see more Cockblocker posters, click here (top row of thumbnails, far right).