Kansan Article #3: The Pointlessness of Flyers

Here's my last published article for this year, folks! Enjoy!

Fliers are as much a part of campus life as cramming for tests and 3 a.m. fire alarms. When they’re pinned up on bulletin boards or featured on Web sites, they don’t really cause a problem. It is only when they are passed out to students on campus that there are problems.

Some students just ignore the fliers and walk past the advertisers, often creating awkward situations for both parties. Some take them only to throw them away shortly thereafter. Campus is littered daily with discarded fliers and inserts and someone has to pick them all up.

Doug Riat, University of Kansas Facilities Operations Director, said that fliers are a hassle for his crews to pick up every day. Advertising inserts in the Kansan are to blame as well. His employees have a daily routine of picking up fliers and Kansan inserts, which he says are mainly dropped by students on accident, flying out of the paper when it’s picked up.

Fliers are useless. Handing someone a piece of paper on campus creates the same effect as tossing a bunch on the ground. Sure people have a Constitutional right to free speech — which is why you’re reading this right now. People also have a right and a duty to help keep our environment clean.

If you want people to actually read your ads and not just litter, then post a few on bulletin boards next to the other things that students are selling. When students want a cheap car or stereo or want to know about upcoming events, they look at the bulletin boards. If you really want to advertise something, put it in the classifieds.

Even consider Facebook fliers, eBay, Cars.com, Craig’s List, and the myriad advertising Web sites out there. The people who visit these Web sites are looking for something specific, so they really care about what you’re selling.

The sheer amount of traffic generated by those websites is amazing. According to statbrain.com, Facebook gets around 4.5 million hits per day, Cars.com gets 1.5 million, Craig’s List gets 5.6 million, and eBay gets a jaw-dropping 8.6 million.

The litter and annoyance created by fliers isn’t worth the possible effect of changing someone’s thinking. Especially when there are such great online opportunities.

But inevitably, fliers will continue to litter our campus. When someone hands you a flier, don’t just throw it on the ground. Consider reading the flier and then throw it away in a nearby trash can or recycling bin. Don’t use the excuse that you couldn’t find one. Trash cans on this campus are as innumerable as filled parking spaces. You’ll save the maintenance crews a lot of work by just recycling the fliers, or better yet, by not handing any out at all. Go for eBay.