Remember when your teachers and parents sat down to give you the talk?

No, not that one. The talk about college life and expectations. About temptations and pitfalls.

Warnings of credit-card solicitors at every football game and Subway, promising a free T-shirt or meal at the mere cost of 12 percent annual interest; these were the traps we were warned of. But there is another snag in the line that threatens to draw students down into a dark and murky hole: alcohol.

Don’t run; we on the Editorial Board are not here to judge. In fact, should you be of legal age, we’re not even here to tell you that consumption of alcohol or the abstinence thereof are what you should do. But we are concerned about Anheuser-Busch’s latest promotion, the “fan can.”

You may have already seen them — Budweiser cans with the school colors, cardinal and gold, plastered onto their sides.

Those are our colors. That’s our school being represented.

On beer cans.

What does it say about Iowa State University when, despite our programs aimed at reducing and even eliminating underage or irresponsible drinking, we let a promotion like this continue without repercussion? According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, college is a time when individuals are at a significantly higher risk of abusing alcohol.

The consequences are varied and many, including memory loss, alcohol poisoning, academic impairment, sexual aggression, sexual assault, and vandalism.

We realize that college is “a time to have fun,” but we on the Editorial Board fail to see such a promotion as anything but dangerous.

ISU spokesman John McCarroll says he wants to make it clear the idea is not Iowa State’s.

“We didn’t endorse this. We weren’t consulted about it by Anheuser-Busch or any other beer company,” he told the Des Moines Register.

That may be, but when a manager of Ames’ own Campustown Liquors calls the promotion “a great idea” and boasts that the colored cans “have been selling like hotcakes” and Iowa State doesn’t take a stand?

That’s endorsement to us, especially considering that Anheuser-Busch has paid for the right to use our logo in previous promotions.

It’s not like ISU officials are powerless here. Anheuser-Busch spokesman Mike Bulthaus wrote in an e-mail to the Des Moines Register that “fan cans” are not being sold where communities have demonstrated such a promotion is not welcome.

Bulthaus also wrote that the company does not support underage drinking.

But underage drinking undoubtedly continues to support Anheuser-Busch, and when “fan cans” enter the picture, it isn’t hard to imagine what the results will be.

We on the Editorial Board are outraged and disappointed at this promotion that aims a potentially harmful product straight at college students.

But we are even more disappointed at the lack of an official repudiation.