Bowdoin students turned on MTV Wednesday night in anticipation of catching a glimpse of themselves or their friends. The Fight For Your Rights: Protect Yourself campaign's "Campus Guide to Safer Sex" premiered Wednesday, in recognition of World AIDS Day. MTV News correspondent Gideon Yago visited Bowdoin with a camera crew in October to conduct interviews for the episode. Many students were featured on-air.
Bowdoin students who watched the show were eager to hear what everyone had to say. Some admitted they hoped to catch some new campus gossip, such as responses to Gideon Yago's first question to every student interviewed, "Are you sexually active?"
Alex Sherman '08, who was interviewed by Yago during MTV's visit to Bowdoin earlier this semester, said, "I thought it was well put-together...they sort of focused more on what students had to say about the facts, and less on the stories."
Sherman agreed with a common campus sentiment that the show didn't dig very deeply into the issues at hand. "They had these very 'MTV' little blurbs of people kissing and making out, and those were very music video oriented, but didn't have a lot to do with the actual topic?they were space fillers, MTV trying to be shocking without actually saying anything. But the scary thing was that those probably took five minutes out of the entire 30 minute show."
Other students expressed annoyance at the repetitiveness of the show. One student called it a "30-minute condom ad," and thought MTV might be using college students to influence a younger audience. The show's target audience was viewers aged 15 to 24.
In an exclusive interview with the Orient, Yago said, "The whole goal of this is to be frank, to get people talking."
The half-hour program aimed to promote awareness about sexual health issues, such as AIDS, STDs, and unintended pregnancy.
Students who missed Wednesday's showings can still catch reruns of the program, which will air through the New Year. The next scheduled rerun airs tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.
See related story from October 2004: "MTV surveys student STDs"