Aggies lose pants to help insulate houses
At least one student decided to walk around campus without his pants Monday after donating them to be recycled into insulation for housing at Cotton’s Dirty Laundry Tour.
“I’m not opposed to going around like this,” said Lance Brown, junior in sports marketing, who was wearing Cotton Inc. boxers in place of his missing pants.
Brown said he won the boxers at one of the booths and decided to wear them so he could donate his denim. The donated denim will be recycled into insulation to be used in houses built by Habitat for Humanity for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Cotton’s Dirty Laundry Tour visited USU as part of a marketing campaign to reach the college demographic. Cotton Inc. is working with Jack Morton Worldwide, an experiential marketing company based in New York, N.Y., to bring the tour to 11 college campuses through Nov. 6.
“We want to remind students that most of what’s in their closet is cotton, like denim,” said Katie Reedy, a representative of Jack Morton Worldwide.
Brown said he liked the Dirty Laundry Tour campaign and thought it was an exciting event for the school to host.
“I don’t mind people marketing,” he said. “It provides something fun. That’s what I like about USU; there’s always something going on.”
The tour was hosted by ASUSU and the College of Natural Resources, with the Public Relations Student Society of America coordinating the denim collection efforts.
Kevin Crouch, president of PRSSA, said the group had collected about 120 pieces of denim after the event ended. The goal, Crouch said, is to have 500 pairs of denim, which can produce enough insulation for one house, by the time collection ends.
Last year, the tour visited Weber State University’s campus, and from the 14 universities involved, the denim drive collected about 14,500 pieces of denim, Crouch said.
Denim for the project can be in any condition, PRSSA treasurer Jackie Banda said, whether in scraps, covered in paint or brand new. Banda said students can continue to donate their denim at any box with the Cotton Inc. logo, located in the Institute building, through the end of the week, as well as the Taggart Student Center and Animal Science building through the next three weeks.
The tour featured several booths with different activities for students to win prizes, including two where students could get a free t-shirt to have customized and enter to win gift cards and denim clothing.
Cotton’s Dirty Laundry Tour’s next stop is California State University in Fresno.
For more information about the tour or the Cotton Inc. denim drive, visit the tour’s Web site, accesscotton.com.
-bri.jones@aggiemail.usu.edu