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University administrators have slammed a new party photo contest for university students on Facebook, saying it promotes irresponsible drinking — and many officials have gone so far as to call on Molson to ditch its campaign.

They said the brewer's online marketing initiative could be harmful for students seeking jobs if a potential employer discovered their raucous partying poses on Facebook. And they said Molson Coors Brewing Co. is targeting students in residence even though many of them are legally too young to consume alcohol.

"I'm disgusted," said Jason Laker, associate vice-principal and dean of student affairs at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., which has had to deal with unruly drinking students. "It is such an apparent and dangerous disregard for the way it promotes an abusive use of alcohol …

"In order for the photos to be eligible, to be notable, would require outrageous behaviour or profoundly dangerous levels of drinking, and of course the kind of decision making and behaviour that follow that. [Molson] are either unaware of it or simply placing profits above ethics."

Mr. Laker and other university officials said Molson should pull the campaign because it is inconsistent with the company's own promotion of safe and responsible drinking.

"It's hard to believe that a leading corporation like Molson would stoop to such a … way of doing business," said Phil Wood, associate vice-president of student affairs at McMaster University in Hamilton, which is writing a letter to Molson to protest the campaign.

Added Joe MacDonald, dean of students at St. Francis Xavier University: "These kinds of programs put added stress on our ability to ensure that students have a very positive, successful academic and non-academic development.… This is not something that is welcome within our campus community."

The Molson campaign asks university and college students to post their partying pictures in a contest for the title of top party school in Canada. The prize is a spring break trip to Cancun for the winner and four friends, worth about $8,000.

Students are being asked to post the images within virtual dorm rooms on Facebook, and each room is tied to a different university or college.

Aimed at reaching 19- to 24-year-olds, Molson's initiative taps into the popular social networking site as a way to "reach our target demographic in the most efficient manner," Sarah Eby, brand manager with Molson Canadian, said in a statement this week.

"If you do it right, you can find yourself with a whole nation of brand ambassadors," added Heather Clark, creative strategy director with Henderson Bas, the ad agency that created the campaign.

Cynthea Galbraith, director of brand communications at Molson, did not reply to messages yesterday. She said on Tuesday that the company had not received any complaints.

The company isn't touting the contest anywhere but on Facebook, she said. To participate, students must be of legal drinking age and join a Molson group on the site. The contest isn't being run in Quebec.

Zach Churchill, national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, said the Molson campaign is "unfortunate" because it stereotypes young people as being interested only in partying.

Facebook officials could not be reached yesterday for comment.