The I’m Shmacked production company featured the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a YouTube video filmed during Parent’s Weekend on Sept. 21, which has raised discussion from students and university officials about the drinking culture depicted in the video.
“I’m Shmacked” travels to colleges across the country filming videos about each campus’ unique personality.
The video spread rapidly after it was released on Thursday, Sept. 26 and already has over 154,000 YouTube views. It is the third “I’m Shmacked” video recorded about UW-Madison.
Depicted in the film are various scenes of the campus community, Badger fans and even parents tailgating before the football game, dancing at a club and chugging alcohol, beer and shots. However, the video disclaims “No alcohol or illegal substance is used during filming, just props.”
UW-Madison senior Carla Nasui, who introduced the university in the video, explained it is simply a way of bringing students of the university together and showing pride for Wisconsin.
“It’s not like it demeans any of the other accomplishments the university has had in the past, so I think it’s pretty harmless,” she said.
However, the video brings up some concern to officials on campus. Director of University Health Services Sarah Van Orman said the video is not an accurate representation of the atmosphere on campus during game days.
“What’s concerning about it is that it’s put in the context of people consuming large amounts of alcohol very quickly,” Van Orman said. “The name implies in order to do these things and have a good time you have to be really intoxicated.”
