Students

CU-Boulder Unhappy with Viral Party Video Showing Students Binge Drinking, Smoking Marijuana (VIDEO)

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The University of Colorado (CU) Boulder officials have denounced a five-minute video of CU students partying hard, drinking alcohol and smoking pot for an advertising campaign. The video, targeted at college students, was produced by Boulder-based 'You Know Productions' for a new mobile application called 'Blend'.

The video that went viral on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter comes less than two weeks after the university introduced a marketing campaign called 'Be Boulder' in an attempt to rid itself of the party-school image and create a positive reputation for CU.

Two months ago, Playboy, popular men's magazine, listed Boulder campus third in the list of top 10 American Party Schools and the school topped the list in 2011.

Claiming that the video painted a faulty image, CU spokesman Mark Miller said, "CU-Boulder was not aware of the production company's intentions to produce a video. The university in no way endorses the video or the app that is advertised," Denver Post reports.

The video uploaded on YouTube Thursday, has garnered over 65,000 views. It shows men and women (wearing CU T-shirts, hats and temporary tattoos) dancing, drinking from large bottles of vodka, blowing smoke and displaying promiscuous behavior. One man in the video has six marijuana joints in his mouth.

Miller further said that the video does not truthfully represent CU students. He said the university had spent nearly $200,000 on the campaign to shift prospective students' focus toward their research, entrepreneurship and accomplishments.

"The University finds the video disappointing because it does not portray the behavior of a majority of our students," Miller said. "In fact, nearly a third of CU-Boulder students (32 percent) report that they do not drink at all," Daily Camera reports.

The Blend app promises college students free stuff from their favorite brands in exchange for posting photos. Users can sign under a specific university or college to upload photographs. Every day, the app has a new theme such as 'Tailgate Saturday,' 'Boys night out' or 'Frat dog' to inspire students to post related photos.

Defending the video's depiction of Boulder students, CEO and founder of Blend, Akash Nigam said, "Universities do party like that. You could be at Princeton and they do that. We felt like something like a video like that would definitely be viral enough to get our name out and it did," The Blaze reports.

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