In a recent Q&A with The Daily Cardinal, rapper and University of Wisconsin-Madison alum, Yung Gravy, looked back on his college days - campus life, a $70 music video that helped launch his career, and, yes, fake IDs.
When asked if he ever had a fake ID as a student, he laughs it off: he had several, some confiscated by grocery stores and bars, some just lost along the way. It’s presented as a nostalgic, relatable detail in a light campus feature about a successful former student coming back to town.
On one level, that makes sense: this is an entertainment Q&A, not a policy brief. But as a company that works at the intersection of nightlife, underage drinking, and ID verification, we can’t ignore what’s happening here: Fake IDs are being framed, again, as a harmless rite of passage, instead of a serious public safety, risk to venue owners, and community issue.
Yung Gravy is far from the only one who’s ever had a fake ID, and he’s certainly not the villain in this story. The problem is the pattern: when media, celebrities, and culture all treat fake ID use as a funny anecdote or a clever hack, the real risks get erased.
And those risks are very real.
On many campuses, fake IDs are treated as a joke, a flex, or even a badge of belonging. Stats back up how widespread it is:
From a student’s perspective, it can feel like a harmless shortcut. From the view of a bar owner, manager, or city official, it’s very different:
When we normalize fake IDs as a “college phase,” we’re essentially normalizing higher risk for everyone around them.
Underage drinking isn’t just about who gets into which bar. Public-health and safety data is very clear:
So when a high-profile artist casually mentions having five fake IDs in college, and the story is packaged as quirky backstory, it reinforces the idea that this is normal and consequence-free. For a lot of students, staff, and communities, it’s not.
Student outlets and entertainment press aren’t trying to promote unsafe behavior. But how these stories are framed matters:
There’s no obligation for every Q&A to become a safety PSA, but imagine the impact if even one sentence of context were added:
Instead, we get the same old storyline: “I had fake IDs, it was wild, everything turned out fine.” That’s survivorship bias in action. We’re hearing from the people who made it through; we don’t hear from the ones who didn’t.
To be clear:
We’re not blaming Yung Gravy for campus drinking culture, and we’re not asking artists to sanitize every interview.
What we are saying is:
As a company that works directly with bars, clubs, and regulators, we see the other side:
At Patronscan, we build systems that help venues:
But technology is only half of the story.
The other half is culture, and culture is shaped by:
If the cultural message is “Everybody does it, and it’s fine,” then we’re asking venues and staff to swim against a very strong current.
Imagine if, after a fake ID anecdote, the conversation went one notch deeper:
Media doesn’t have to be preachy to be responsible. A single sentence of context can signal to readers that:
We’re glad people are talking about fake IDs out loud. It’s better than pretending the problem doesn’t exist.
But we also believe:
Just because something is common doesn’t mean it should be normalized. And, just because a story worked out for one person doesn’t mean it’s safe for everyone else.
At Patronscan, we’ll keep doing our part on the technology and venue side: giving bars, clubs, and retailers tools to verify IDs, protect their licenses, and keep people safer.
We’d love to see more of the cultural conversation evolve in the same direction where “I had a fake ID” isn’t just a punchline, but a starting point for a more honest discussion about risk, responsibility, and what it really means to look out for each other.
Contact Us to learn more about how Patronscan can help venues like yours.