Some may call them real men of marketing genius. But, University officials don't think so.

In the lead-up to this year's college football season, Anheuser-Busch, the venerable beer producer, has rolled out "Fan Cans" targeted at winning over pigskin fans on campuses across the country. But University officials, in a series of letters to the company, threatened legal action if the beer company didn’t stop using the school's colors in the controversial campaign that sells Bud Light in color-coordinated cans that mimic the team colors of 27 colleges.

University Spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said University officials urged Anheuser-Busch to stop the campaign because yellow and blue beer cans could give the impression that the University promotes underage drinking.

“If our name was associated with an alcoholic beverage, the natural next step for people would be that the University is endorsing alcohol,” she said. “Our students are mostly underage, and so it doesn’t make any sense.”

The University’s initial letter to Anheuser-Busch cited the Michigan licensing program, which officially licenses products to support the University’s educational and athletic programs. The letter said the program is “carefully crafted to assure that any products licensed support the University’s values and its standards for excellence,” and that the licensing of University trademarks on alcoholic beverages would not meet those standards.

The decision to lobby against the campaign contradicts the University’s position on a similar underage drinking matter raised last year.

After 129 college and university presidents chose to sign the Amethyst Initiative — a petition to lower the national drinking age from 21 to 18 — last year, University President Mary Sue Coleman opted not to.

In an interview with the Daily early last September, Coleman explained what she called an “easy” decision not to sign the petition.

"I certainly respect people who want to stimulate a discussion and I think that's what the Amethyst Initiative was all about," Coleman said. "What I disagree with is the notion that lowering the drinking age is going to somehow alleviate the problem."

Coleman did say at the time that she agreed with the petition’s characterization of the alcohol problem on campuses.

"This whole issue of binge drinking, particularly the kind of destructive, frequent binging on alcohol, is a big issue, and it's a big problem on college campuses," she said. "And it's one that I certainly think deserves a lot of discussion, a lot of attention about trying to find solutions."

Ari Parritz, President of the Interfraternity Council, wrote in an e-mail late last month that he agrees with the University’s position on the “Fan Cans,” but added that more needs to be done to combat binge drinking at the University.

“I emphatically stand with the University in its fight against binge drinking and underage consumption,” Parritz, a Public Policy senior, wrote. “Do I think Maize and Blue beer cans will spike consumption on football Saturdays? Probably not."

He added: “However, I believe there are more salient ways to fight alcohol abuse on campus than to petition against Anheuser-Busch.”

The Federal Trade Commission shares the University’s concerns on underage drinking. Janet Evans, a senior attorney at the FTC who oversees alcohol marketing issues, told The Associated Press that regulators are concerned the campaign could encourage underage drinking.

“When you’ve got a college campus audience you’ve got a very large number of persons who are below the legal drinking age there, and in addition, you’ve got a population that engages almost exclusively in binge drinking,” she said.

After correspondence with the University, the St. Louis-based beer company agreed not to sell the yellow and blue cans in the University “community,” but did not specify what, exactly, that meant.