Recruitment. The times of year when the freshmen women garb up, and show out. This is their shot to shine in the big leagues. If they thought they were hot shit in high school, oh baby, now is the time to put you popularity to the test. Now, take my cynical attitude with a grain of salt, because I too, drank the Kool-Aid and went through recruitment. After, I found Greek life was not for me; DISCLAIMER: this is not to say people cannot gain valuable things from Greek life, because they can; however I am just not one of those people.

So, with the disclaimer out of the way, what are these? These promotional videos attempt to highlight the most stereotypical parts of being in a sorority. I mean think about it, you have the flag with the letters, at least 15 shots of the letters, girls wearing school colors, girls studying, girls laughing and damn near kissing each other, girls using smoke bombs, girls shopping, girls playing with puppies, girls acting like they like sports, girls blowing glitter and bubbles, girls holding hands and walking in heels, I mean goddamn, it all looks great! Sign me up and take all my money now, please!

But when is enough, enough? No one can be fooled into thinking this is actually what happens, right? Alas, these promotional tools drop right before recruitment in able for all potential new members to view and be pulled in. Freshmen girls don’t really know the name of the game, and if these promo videos are trying to capture the essence of a house, they really miss the mark. Each one of these things is pretty much the same. They all follow a plucky EDM song, they all highlight the mainly white women in the houses, and they all include a variety of the same shots. Also, the majority of the houses use the same regional video maker, so it’s no wonder they’re all alike, they’re all made by the same dude sitting behind his MacBook.

Now, I can’t sit and lie and say that they aren’t cool videos, because some of them are kind of cool, who doesn’t like puppies’ right? Well, if you get over the fact they’re so similar and are all trying to get you to preference a certain house, the façade kind of falls apart and become really shallow. If all the promos are the same, at a certain point aren’t you just comparing what the girls look like and the houses? You can’t display friendship, or sisterhood, or what a sorority cares about in 90 seconds, so why do they all try? Is the point to be looking at all their cool shit and Jeep Wranglers/G-Wagons? That’s what it seems like to me.

Now, don’t shoot the messenger but these promos only fool the vapid that care about the cars and glitter and house. If you’re looking to have your interest peaked by a video, watch Ted Talks and not the videos sorority houses put out. These videos are tricky, and are meant to display and often deceive something just for looks. So, if any hopeful potential new members are reading this, use a critical eye, and realize these are uniform videos, and not real life. You will not magically transform into one of these girls, your life will not become like one of these videos if you join a sorority, and know it’s okay to not want to be everything you think Greek life seems to be.