I recently read an article praising the Oberlin College community for embracing a site that promotes the use of profanity in describing Oberlin as a great place to go to college. As a marketing professional in higher ed, I was surprised to see praise and compliments for a student or alumni site that promotes this site as innovative and creative.

In my review, I find both the site and the article praising the site as cheap. It uses some of the most vile profanity I have seen officially connected to any institution to gain attention and social media posts. Using this level of profanity is akin to using sex as an attention getting device. It is a short cut to gaining attention, but like the Go-Daddy.com ads, it only keeps your attention for the shock value, and lacks the substance and creative content that would hold the audience’s attention in the absence of the obscenities.As the CMO of the college associated with this site, I would be embarrassed.

As advice to entrepreneurs vying for attention, don’t steep to this type of marketing and social media because the long-term damage to your brand’s reputation could be irreversible.