New Leaf: Waste of paper

By Stephanie Seltzer | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Advertisements take up space on the television, the radio, online, and newspapers, so why would a car sound like a good place to advertise?

Students who avoid spending extra money on on-campus parking and the parking garage usually try to find a space on Valencia Street or on Oviedo Street. Since college students are a target audience for bars and nightclubs, club promoters find this to be a key spot to place their advertisements.

“Paper advertisements are helpful for students to keep up to date with what’s going on,” said sophomore Merika Childers. “They should be handed students directly instead of left on their vehicles.”

Since the rise of Facebook most promoters have taken advantage of the events application. This allowed students to have a paper and damage free reminder of the events and specials that the club will be having that night. Instead of just using this efficient method, promoters take advantage of placing them on car windows and sliding them under dorm doors.

According to the Worldwatch Institute 115 billion sheets of paper are used annually for personal computers. This means each time a promoter prints advertisements this number will rise.

“I throw the advertisements away when they slide them under my dorm room door,” said freshman Mary Keegan. “I get them about every Thursday and throw them out immediately, they are really annoying.”

The real question that it comes down to is do the advertisements actually work?  From the look of them lying on the street next to cars and from the collection that lies in the trash cans, they seem to be just a waste of paper.

“They are a pain because it just creates more trash. I don’t even think any of those advertisements actually gets people to the event anymore,” said junior Phillie Shoop.

According to the American Forest and Paper Association the United States uses 25 percent of the world’s paper products. They also say that the average American will use over 748 pounds of paper in one year.

So a word for the wise for club promoters: leave the cars alone and forget about sliding them under dorm doors. Instead try saving the money that you would spend printing all the advertisements and try a paper free advertisement like a radio or television.