ebay...

[GammaZeta]

Offensive to who? To you, probably. But you are not the target audience.

Today's recruitment is nothing more than marketing. You have to do what gets attention and appeals to your target audience.

The target audience isn't older alumni, or parents. The target audience is the 18-21 year olds that sit behind them at class, or see them walking on campus.

A funny, or to some offensive, shirt stands out. It is branding. You have to compete with not only the other greek groups to get recognition, but also other marketing tools.

A college campus is overloaded with marketing schemes. If the t-shirt helps to get attention and helps recruitment, more power to them.

[dever860]

Originally Posted by GammaZeta

Offensive to who? To you, probably. But you are not the target audience.

Today's recruitment is nothing more than marketing. You have to do what gets attention and appeals to your target audience.

The target audience isn't older alumni, or parents. The target audience is the 18-21 year olds that sit behind them at class, or see them walking on campus.

A funny, or to some offensive, shirt stands out. It is branding. You have to compete with not only the other greek groups to get recognition, but also other marketing tools.

A college campus is overloaded with marketing schemes. If the t-shirt helps to get attention and helps recruitment, more power to them.

Thats all fine and good but it depends on what perspective you take. If you are a potential Associate Member cool looking shirts with funny slogans are great. Where does it stop though? A lot of it has to do with how others, non-greek non-perspective members, greeks, sorority's, parents, alumni, teachers, and administrators see them. Getting new guys is half the battle, the other half is politics. No one is going to take you seriously if you fit the stereotype as typical frat guys who just want to drink and get laid. Perhaps I am putting too much emphasis on shirts, but that kind of attitude is detrimental to greek life as whole. "As long as it gets new guys, who cares?" Yea its all marketing, but you aren't just marketing to perspective members. I'm surprised someone who is having a problem with putting off a good image in Amherst would take that perspective. There is a reason the town doesn't like Greek's, perhaps a unwillingness to change their attitudes, and of course, bad marketing.

[JonoBN41]

touche!

[LambdaAlpha602]

Hi all,

Dever860

I actually am one of the owners of the greekbeads site. My name is Stephen Gordon and am from the Lambda Alpha chapter down in New Orleans. Myself and three older alumni came up with the idea after katrina to add a bit of our own flavor to our fraternity as I (president at the time) tried to resurrect our chapter. These items were originally presents to Nationals after we successfully worked together to bring the chapter back after the storm!

I am surprised by the negativity that my own brothers are saying about this product. We are licensed and have come up with another unique product for the Greek community.

At the last winter leadership conference I handed out FREE beads and wrist bands to all brothers and associates there as a gesture of good will and because after the storm many fine brothers took me in and anything I can do in return I gladly will. Bill Farkas, Biff Halloway, Aaron parker, Tim Reuteur and a handful of other brothers at nationals loved the products when we gave them one off pieces at an event last November. Because of the positive response we ended up having this made in larger quantities for the rest of our brothers to enjoy!

The reason why the beads were listed multiple times on ebay is because a well known Greek website was interested in becoming a distributor for the products and we sent them free samples to look at. He put them on ebay to test the market at diffrent prices.

I put them on shortly after that to test the market myself at the higher price and see what the response was for the beads. I listed the tag at the regular 8.95 price.

The price on our website was originally the price just for brothers that we came up with after the winter leadership retreat. I will gladly sell any brother any item for a discounted price even from what the website says. I am not here to squeeze anyone for cash and really would like to get the products to as many brothers as possible! I LOVE lambda chi alpha with all my heart and would never do anything to try and do otherwise!

[GammaZeta]

Dever, I don't try to put off a good image in Amherst. I put off a true image, but I don't try to bend it or distort anything. There is nothing in Amherst, and probably won't be for many years considering the state of the greek community. I just tell it like it is.

Yeah, I see your point about politics and parents, staff, administration, etc. But will a shirt really make a difference? Where I come from, any type of letters, slogan or not, was cause for discrimination and ridicule.

It boils down to marketing, simple. Beer commercials use women in bikinis for a reason. Do they care about the Christian Right Wing groups?

If it was ONLY greek organizations using the slogans, I would say it may be problematic. But it's not. These type of t-shirts are everywhere. I remember at Mt. Holyoke, the cheerleading team had a shirt with two pom-poms and a megaphone positioned to resemble male genetalia with the slogan "practicing perfect mounting since 1997" or something like that.

20 years ago I would say the shirts are inappropriate. But in today's college environment, I don't really see it.

[dever860]

Originally Posted by GammaZeta

Dever, I don't try to put off a good image in Amherst. I put off a true image, but I don't try to bend it or distort anything. There is nothing in Amherst, and probably won't be for many years considering the state of the greek community. I just tell it like it is.

Yeah, I see your point about politics and parents, staff, administration, etc. But will a shirt really make a difference? Where I come from, any type of letters, slogan or not, was cause for discrimination and ridicule.

It boils down to marketing, simple. Beer commercials use women in bikinis for a reason. Do they care about the Christian Right Wing groups?

If it was ONLY greek organizations using the slogans, I would say it may be problematic. But it's not. These type of t-shirts are everywhere. I remember at Mt. Holyoke, the cheerleading team had a shirt with two pom-poms and a megaphone positioned to resemble male genetalia with the slogan "practicing perfect mounting since 1997" or something like that.

20 years ago I would say the shirts are inappropriate. But in today's college environment, I don't really see it.

I'll concede to the point that maybe I was focusing too much on the whole shirt thing, but that was just an example of a larger issue.

Shirts and beads aren't the problem, is where you decide to show them that is going to be the issue. I wear my raunchy shirts sometimes when I am around the house, but I would never ever wear them to work, or to a meeting with my professors. Shirts are great marketing tools, but they have their time and place, which is what I was getting at. Unfortunately not everyone can be responsible for how they decide to display their letters. I have a LCA hat, the black and green with the women in the shape of LXA, I try not to wear it in places that I know that it would offend people. Meaning I rarely ever wear it outside of the house.

Now the whole issue with the beads is totally different. My problem with the beads unless it is decided that all college students are ignorant, beads are synonymous with drinking. This is a bit different than shot glasses and whatnot, but usually you try not to take your own expensive glassware out for a night at the bars. I guess my whole point is we expressly ban people wearing letters while drinking, because as everyone know alcohol makes people do real dumb stuff, trust me I know. And based on that, wearing letters at the bar leads to a horrible image. Some fraternities do it here, none of which I would consider the most respectable ones on campus. Beads are meant to be displayed while drinking, thats the entire idea which is why I have a problem with selling them with letters on them. We don't allow the wearing of letters while drinking in public, so there isn't a real need for drinking beads.

GZ I wasn't referring to the image you personally put off at Amherst, I was referring to how others perceive the image put off and the repercussions putting off that image involves. I wasn't making a personal attack on you personally, but referring to how the town of Amherst perceives greeks. There must be a reason for the bad blood, as broad as it may be. The fact of the matter is whatever that reason is it had to have come from someone. It just takes one person to ruin a good and sacred thing for everyone, as history has shown quite frequently, especially with GLOs.

I totally agree with the whole marketing thing. Perhaps I am a traditionalist on this matter and in some respects a hypocrite, but somethings should remain scared. Our letters being one of them. I have a shot glass with letters on it, and it is the very last one I would take out of my cupboard. Same goes with shirts, unless I have nothing else clean it's staying in the closet, and in most cases I will wear something thats dirty first.

Its all about image. There has to be some limit on what people can do to be funny and attract new members.

[GammaZeta]

Interesting. I can see the difference between beads and shot glasses. But would you really wear your beads to a bar? If a brother of mine wore those beads to the bar (no offense to the brother that sells them) they would get a beat down for tackiness, in the same spirit if they brought their own LXA beer mug. They are FINE for a Mardi Gras party within your own house, as are shot glasses, etc.

It's funny you brought up the fact that you would never wear one of those shirts meeting with your professor or work. Good for you. You are about 15 years ahead of most other college students. Unfortunately, you would be surprised at the current state that people dress today. I was able to work in a courthouse for quite some time. You'd think people appearing before a judge would at least wear khakis or nice jeans, right? Most people wore PAJAMA pants, and several instances, one person wore PINK FUZZY SLIPPERS to COURT!!!! I also live near a high school. Everyday I see kids coming from it wearing pajama bottoms.

AMAZING!

As for Amherst, that town is a lost cause. The stories I could tell you about the anti-greek things they have done. It's almost straight out of a bad 80's frat movie.

I think it's just a trend, nothing to worry about. In a year or two, those catchy/dirty shirts will be haning with cargo pants and flannel shirts.