Chalk is the new pen, and sidewalk is the new paper. Clubs and organizations are foregoing traditional means of advertising in favor of chalking the Quad in order to get their message out.

Ghaea Kang, sophomore in FAA and publicity chair of the Asian American Association, chalked the Quad to advertise the group’s fundraiser, Operation Christmas Child, which sold hot cider and baked goods.

Kang has tried giving out flyers, but has found that people usually take one and throw it out.

“When you chalk the Quad, you know your efforts don’t go to waste,” Kang said. “You don’t get outright rejected.”

One message that can be seen frequently on the Quad is that of I-Change, a campaign whose goal is to start discussion among the campus community about issues ranging from discrimination to campus safety.

Words like “Bigot,” “Ugly” and “Stupid” are spray-painted on the sidewalk along with the name of the campaign.

“We use all kinds of marketing techniques,” said Paul Richardson, senior in LAS and an administrative intern in the Illini Union Director’s Office, who helped start the campaign almost a year ago.

“We didn’t really realize that the chalk would be that effective,” he said.

But just like the flyer, chalking the Quad has its downside.

For Christine Reed, freshman in Business, signs on the Quad lose their allure and fail to entice the average passerby after the first couple weeks of school.

She said people begin to realize that the signs are just advertisements and start ignoring them.

“I see them, but I don’t pay attention to what they say,” Reed said.

“(Maybe) once in a while (if) there’s one about food,” she said.

Advertising on the Quad has had negative results for I-Change as well.

Sidewalk signs lack an explanation as to what the campaign is really about, leaving sidewalk readers wondering.

The only reason Reed says she knows what the spray paint means is because she has seen other I-Change advertisements, such as posters, that explain the campaign better.

“Because I noticed the posters, (the sidewalk signs) are effective,” she said. “But if you haven’t seen those, you don’t know what the spray paint is about.”

Leaving people to figure out what I-Change was on their own was not the intention of the campaign, Richardson said.

“A lot of our posters describe the campaign,” Richardson said. “But the posters don’t last nearly as long. It’s really a reality of how marketing works.”

While chalking the Quad may be a unique advertising method, Richardson said the I-Change campaign is trying out new ways of generating discussion throughout the campus community.

“We’re constantly trying to change our marketing strategy in order to make people as aware of [our message] as possible,” Richardson said.