Culture of cups

In the United States, there are 4,495 universities. And, according to the Princeton Review, IU was ranked the No. 16 party school in 2012.

Sixteenth place out of 4,495 schools is a big deal. That’s a lot of partying.

The party scene at IU ranges drastically, from large fraternity and sorority parties to small apartment gatherings to large-scale tailgating and medium-sized house parties. However, the one common thread throughout them all is the Pizza X cup.

The Pizza X cup is all over the party scene at IU — fitting, considering its practicality for party usage. It’s reusable, it’s free with the purchase of any drink from Pizza X, it holds a substantial amount of liquid and it comes in a wide range of colors, making it easy to identify your specific cup at a party, as opposed to finding your red Solo cup out of a sea of red Solo cups.

The cup has become one of Pizza X’s most widespread and effective methods of advertisement at all their locations, but especially on and around campus.

“They kind of toss [the cups] at you. So you kind of don’t know what to do with them, you have so many,” Christian Wagner, a junior majoring in biology and a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, said. “Like everyone’s house or apartment that I’ve gone to — they just have stacks of them in their drawers.”  

Wagner believes the advertising is effective in its approach.

“You know how many kids call Pizza X when they’re drunk?” Wagner asked. “All they have to do is look at the back of a cup and they’re like ‘Oh my god! I should get Pizza X.’”

However, with Pizza X now selling ready-to-go beer pong sets (that is, a set of the reusable cups packed with two ping pong balls) in-store, one questions whether or not the advertising is going so far as to support alcohol abuse and underage drinking.

Haley Lips, a 19-year-old sophomore at IU, and an athlete on the swim team, said she believes there isn’t a problem with underage drinking at the school.

“I haven’t heard of anything crazy going on. Like dealing with underage drinking, I guess [the university] keep[s] it under control, which is good,” said Lips.

Her teammate, Rachel Thompson, also a 19-year-old sophomore, agrees.

“It’s not wrong to put your brand on the cup. That’s not encouraging underage drinking,” Thompson said.  

Jesse Bloom, a manager at Pizza X’s campus location, describes the reasoning behind the beer pong sets.

It was by customer demand, Bloom said, that Pizza X decided to begin selling the beer pong sets.

Customers would come into the store and ask for the product, and so the company began producing the sets — both as a form of revenue, and as another advertising technique.

Marketing, Bloom believes, is one main reason behind the cups.

“I know that people get excited about the cups when we have different colors and stuff like that — but to me it’s more of just like a marketing thing,” Bloom said. “You know, we’ve got our phone number on every cup, so it’s just one more thing in everybody’s house that reminds them to order Pizza X.”

Jeff Mease, the founder, co-owner and CEO of One World Enterprises located in Bloomington, the company that owns Pizza X, Lennie’s Restaurant and Brewpub, Bloomington Brewing Company, One World Catering & Events and Loesch Farm, started the pizza company in 1982 when he was 19 years old.

Pizza X’s angle has always been to be a part of the student culture, Mease said.

The cup was introduced a few years into the company’s history. Mease claims it’s a “phenomenal marketing strategy, and one that’s worth it for the name recognition and the reusable aspect of the cup.”

Mease said he disliked the red Solo cup because it’s something that’s used once and thrown away, even though it’s made of a finite

resource.

“If our cup replaces, you know, 100 red Solo cups, through the course of somebody’s college career, or acts as a pet food scoop, or a plant starting container, or any number of different things, I feel like that’s a good thing,” said Mease.

As for the beer pong sets, Mease explains that the product launched with Pizza X printing ping pong balls, as Pizza X always tried to be “in front of people” with their name and part of the IU culture.

Despite a seemingly hard sell to students only, Mease believes that demographics are a non-factor in the food industry — especially the pizza industry, because everybody eats, and, according to Mease, everyone eats pizza.

Mease claims the Pizza X cups do not promote underage drinking, and are only a solid advertising technique.

“Do people use them for keg parties? Absolutely,” said Mease. “Do we want them to use them for keg parties? Sure. You know, they’re gonna drink out of something.”

Mease understands alcohol abuse is present, however. He further explained, though, that underage drinking is not something new, and it’s been around for

generations.

The cup itself does not condone or condemn anything.

The cup is just a cup that happens to have his company’s name and phone number on it.

“If someone chooses to drink, they’re, you know, making their own decision about the risk involved, and want to use our cup instead of the red Solo cup, I’d say, you know, go for it,” said Mease.

Senior Derek Rice of the former Acacia fraternity sees Pizza X as a welcome change of pace from the average restaurant.

“They’re promoting a more entertaining atmosphere around campus versus a boring pizza shop that just comes and delivers,” Rice said.

“They want the drunken idiots at the end of the night to buy their pizza, knowing that it’s gonna be fast — and when you’re walking from party to party, you’re gonna see this car driving around blaring music, and right away, you’re gonna say, ‘Who the hell is that?’ And you’re just gonna think: that’s Pizza X. I’m calling that tonight. It’s cheap, comes with two free drinks, and a condom. What’s better?”