The Quad: The value of Bruin Walk flyering

One of UCLA’s most long-standing traditions is, unquestionably, flyering.

Groups on Bruin Walk, in particular, take flyering to a whole new level. As Bruin Walk is the primary route to class for most students, flyering is almost unavoidable while passing through campus, though not impossible.

I understand why people flyer. Even the Daily Bruin does it. But is flyering actually effective?

Greenpeace, an activist organization aimed at defeating oil companies through marketing tactics like flyering, formally known as leafleting, defines it as “guerilla marketing.” Guerilla marketing is an advertisement strategy designed for any sort of group to promote their products or services in an atypical way with minimal financial investment. Given this low bar in terms of financial accessibility, flyering is an extremely popular method of advertisement among college campuses.

Here at UCLA, however, those who flyer or otherwise advertise on Bruin Walk are perfectly aware of how passers-by feel about being targeted.

[Related: From the Hill to campus, sans flyering]

I discovered Yesenia Melgoza-Fernandez sitting at a table promoting her organization on Bruin Walk. “A lot of people tend to avoid Bruin Walk because they don’t want to be flyered to, and the people who usually do walk through Bruin Walk don’t take people’s flyers,” said Melgoza-Fernandez, a fourth-year sociology and Chicano studies student and president of Sigma Alpha Zeta, a multicultural sorority.

Though this is a common sentiment among most students, other students who flyer do see the positive side of this marketing strategy. “It is effective, even just by putting the name out there,” said Seher Chowdhury, third-year psychobiology student and a director of Asian Pacific Health Corps.

I question the advantages of flyering because as a regular ol’ gal making my way to class every Tuesday and Thursday, I plug my earphones in and ignore my peers attempting to shove flyers in my face. Surprise, surprise: turns out I am not the only one doing so.

“I don’t even know what they are saying – they just talk so fast and put a piece of paper in your face, “ said third-year business economics student Shahdad Rahimian.

We can all agree that flyering is a very traditional form of advertisement and a time-honored tradition at UCLA, even if its effectiveness is questionable. It just seems so useless to waste paper when there are so many more effectual ways to get the point across. We live in a time of Facebook groups and Instagram pages dedicated to our campus and its many clubs and organizations.

Reem Rizkallah, fourth-year French student, suggested setting up booths so that people can choose where to stop and ask questions instead of having people get in their face. Hannah Lambing, a third-year neuroscience student and member of Pediatric AIDS Coalition who was flyering on Bruin Walk, advocated utilizing many different types of advertising, including flyering, social media and booths.

My aggravation stems from these questions: How do you know if I am interested in going to law school, and therefore wanting to join the Pre-Law Society? Or if I can sing and am dying to join an a cappella group? Are the words “law” and “sing” written on my face, without my knowledge? You don’t know me, Pediatric AIDS Coalition.

Members of clubs and organizations continue to point out the effectiveness of flyering, even while they may have mixed feelings about whether or not it is genuinely attention-grabbing. Evidently, clubs and organizations do benefit from flyering, to a certain degree, by putting the name out there or forcefully informing through the creation of a one-on-one, in-your-face setting.

[Throwback: 2008’s The Effects of Flyering on Bruinwalk]

If you take into account the amount of buzz social media can create, however, it seems as though flyering is hardly effective in comparison, and maybe even counterintuitive. But, who am I to judge? You’ll probably catch me flyering for Daily Bruin in no time.