College website apologises to advertiser for article about one-night stands

Ronan McGreevy

A website for Irish third-level students has apologised to soft-drinks maker 7up after an advertisement for the firm appeared beside an article advising men how to find a woman for a one night stand.

Collegetimes.ie has also been heavily criticised on its Facebook page and on Twitter for the article, which has also received hundreds of Facebook likes.

When the article was brought to the attention of 7up, the company tweeted: “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We by no means endorse this content and are having our ads pulled ASAP”. It has since been removed from Collegetimes.ie.

In a statement, PepsiCo, which owns 7Up, said: "7up does not condone the type of content that appeared on collegetimes.ie today. As soon as we were made aware of where our advert was placed we had it removed immediately."

The article was written by journalist Joanna Stroinska and tells men how to pick-up a girl in a nightclub.

The article suggests that finding a one night stand is similar to betting on the dogs and the “key focus should be the candidate”.

It said prime candidates were “girls who have just been dumped, girls with low self-esteem and potential daddy issues, and slut bags”.

Featuring a photograph of Austrian abductor Joseph Fritzl, the article said men on the pull should not give the impression to a girl of being a Joseph Fritzl-type character.

It recommends targeting young women who are attractive but still have self-esteem issues about their looks.

It goes on to state: “When she’s in your house, don’t waste time with the nonsense of house tours or making her feel comfortable. This is an ‘in and out’ job, pun intended. Again, to ensure you don’t get a clinger make sure the sex implies as little relationship qualities as possible. Pull her hair, rip her shirt but by all means- don’t look in her eyes!”

It concludes by recommending that the man avoids giving the woman lift home and also avoids learning her surname or her mobile phone number. “The most successful one night stands leave no loose strings!”

In a statement collegetimes.ie said it “would like to publicly apologise to our advertising partner 7Up for a technical failure that allowed advertisements for the brand to appear alongside an article in our ‘It’s all about sex section’.

“We have removed the brand from the particular section and would like to make it clear that 7Up would never be associated with content of this type.

"The article 'One Night Stand - For Men' was written by a woman to highlight, in a satirical fashion, behaviours that occur commonly within our society. The article was based on the observations of a student. College Times never intended to offend any of our readers."

A version of the article first appeared on the Canadian website www.premierlife.ca.

Cork-based feminist group Feminista criticised Ms Stroinska's article, saying it prompted "sexism and misogyny".