Dive Brief:

• Twenty universities have signed licensing and marketing agreements with Jell-O to profit from the sale of special school-themed Jell-O flavors and molds.
• The Jell-O Jigglers University Mold Kits are drawing fire for promoting alcohol consumption — and binge drinking by college students — because they appear to be designed for making Jell-O shots.
• Judging from the response from consumers, the sole use of the Jell-O kits will be to make Jell-O shots, despite Jell-O’s contention to the contrary, and that of several of the universities, Vocativ.com reports.

Dive Insight:

Jell-O shots promote binge drinking by masking the taste of alcohol, and they are deemed so dangerous that some universities have banned them. Vocativ.com points out that the Greek council at Ohio State University, one of the Jell-O schools, prohibits them at sorority and fraternity functions. Besides Ohio State, the schools with Jell-O kits are the University of Alabama, the University of Arkansas, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Tennessee, and Texas A&M University — all schools from the Southeastern Conference — plus Florida State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Oregon, the University of Texas, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and the University of Wisconsin.