Blend For more information on the Blend mobile app, visit blend.la

Less than two weeks after the University of Colorado announced a new marketing campaign to help shake off its party-school image, a new five-minute video of young people in CU garb apparently drinking hard alcohol and smoking marijuana was being shared repeatedly on Facebook and Twitter on Friday.

The video, produced by Boulder-based You Know Productions, is part of an advertising campaign for a new mobile application targeted at college students called Blend.

CU officials say they do not approve of the video or the image of students it evokes.

“CU-Boulder was not aware of the production company’s intentions to produce a video,” said CU spokesman Mark Miller in an emailed statement. “The University in no way endorses the video or the app that is advertised.”

At the beginning of the video, two women wearing You Know Productions t-shirts speak into the camera.

“You know Boulder does it better than anyone,” one of the women says.

“Get stuffed, go Buffs,” says the other.

“We’ll show you Boulder.”

The camera follows the two women into what appears to be a backyard tailgate, where men and women wearing CU T-shirts, hats and temporary tattoos drink from large bottles of vodka, blow smoke toward the camera and dance. One man in the video has what appears to be six marijuana joints in his mouth while he bobs his head around in circles.

At the end of the video, a screen appears with text that reads: “The best four years of your life just got better” next to the Blend app logo.

One viewer wrote “I got a hangover just from watching this” in the comments section.

Miller said the video does not accurately represent CU students. Earlier this month, the university launched its “Be Boulder” campaign in an attempt to refocus the population’s attention on CU’s researchers, entrepreneurs and accomplishments. The Boulder campus — host to a massive 4/20 gathering that attracted more than 10,000 pot smokers in recent years — was ranked No. 3 on Playboy’s list of Top 10 party schools in 2013, and topped that list in 2011.

The Boulder campus spent nearly $200,000 on the “Be Boulder” campaign to help create a more positive reputation for CU.

“The University finds the video disappointing because it does not portray the behavior of a majority of our students,” Miller said. “In fact, nearly a third of CU-Boulder students (32 percent) report that they do not drink at all.”

The Blend app, which is targeted at college students around the country, allows users to sign up under a specific university or college to upload photographs. Each day, the app has a new theme such as “Tailgate Saturday,” “Boys night out” or “Frat dog” to help provide inspiration for the photos users post.

If other users like photos they see, they can reward the person with a “snap,” the app’s version of Facebook’s “like.” With snaps, users can purchase “Blend gifts” using currency in their “snap wallet.”

Users can scroll through other photos posted at their university, or look at photos posted around the country using the app.

“Students have so many of these shared experiences whether it’s in Boulder or at Duke,” said Blend Systems co-founder Matt Geiger, 22. “Geographically these schools are different but all students have very similar experiences.”

Though the app is available to 3,500 campuses nationally, Geiger said Blend Systems is targeting roughly 10 schools, including CU’s Boulder campus, with marketing and advertising like this video. The CU video is the first of its kind, said Blend Systems CEO and co-founder Akash Nigam, but there are more being filmed at other universities.

Geiger said around 20 people based in Boulder are working to spread the word about Blend.

Working on behalf of Blend Systems, You Know Productions first posted the video to YouTube on Tuesday with footage of CU football and certain buildings on campus, Geiger said. University officials contacted Blend Systems twice within 24 hours to ask the company to remove the video, he said.

They also asked the company to remove the footage of CU football and campus buildings because of licensing regulations, Geiger said.

Miller acknowledged that CU officials contacted the company and asked them to remove video that depicted official CU imagery.

“Earlier this week, CU-Boulder asked the company to remove video that depicted copyright protected imagery,” Miller said. “The company has complied with that request and all trademarked images have been removed.”

You Know Productions removed the copyright-protected imagery, and posted an edited version of the video, with more partying, Geiger said, on Thursday.

“You know you’re doing something right when it gets to (school officials) that quickly because that means it’s getting to students even quicker,” Geiger said. “They made us strip out some of the stuff and (the video) turned into more partying. ‘Can’t use football. Can’t use this building. Can’t use that.’ Well, the video is going to be even more partying.”

Blend Systems, based in San Jose, Calif., was founded by Geiger, Nigam and Evan Rosenbaum. Geiger, who attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Nigam, who attended the University of Michigan, both dropped out of school to pursue Blend Systems full time. Rosenbaum still studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Contact Staff Writer Sarah Kuta at 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta.