SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — A contemporary lounge-like area, computers hooked up to wireless Internet and displays of creations by famous fashion designers set up on the beach at South Padre Island drew the attention of spring breakers on Sunday.
The Rock the Bag event, a part of the Don’t Mess with Texas litter prevention campaign, was geared toward the young adults spending their spring holiday on the Island, said Tamala Barksdale, director of marketing for Enviromedia.
Staffers were handing out free litterbags, each of which displayed a youthful and colorful design, to spring breakers as they headed back toward their vehicles.
“Of course, you see a living room set up on the beach, and you say, ‘What’s going on there?’” Barksdale said.
Spring breakers could choose from a variety of bags, including a white bag decorated with outlines of skulls and pink bows, a black bag that had a tattoo-like design on it, complete with sparrows, hearts and flowers, or a bag with an image of a lifted truck with oversize wheels on it.
“We want to reach this part of Texas for sure,” Barksdale said.
Fashion and home décor designer Todd Oldham, a Texas native, donated his time to the campaign by designing a new litterbag for the 16-city tour, Barksdale said.
The bag Oldham designed was tan with pink and red flowers, and has been a popular choice since the Rock the Bag tent was first set up Saturday, Barksdale said.
As spring breakers walked toward the beach, they could use the computers to sign up with the event’s MySpace and Facebook profile pages on the Internet, Barksdale said.
The opportunity to log onto the Internet and check their social networking Web sites was a main attraction and helped draw students to the Rock the Bag area, Barksdale said.
The campaign set up their event area at about noon Saturday and Sunday and stayed on the beach until about 5 p.m. and planned to return today, Barksdale said. As spring breakers signed up with the campaign’s Web sites, some were randomly chosen to sign up for a chance to win a pair of Southwest Airline tickets.
At the end of each day, a winner’s name will be selected, she said.
