Commercial Advertising In Schools

Business involvement in schools has a long history. Scholarships, donations, and mentoring projects are often positive for schools and businesses alike. But at what point does corporate involvement target students not as learners, but as consumers and potential customers?

In elementary, middle and high schools direct advertising to students can be found on:

• Book covers: free book covers with ads, such as Frosted Flakes and Lays Potato Chips, are distributed to students. In 1998 over half of American students, 25 million, received book covers (Consumer Reports, 1998).
• "Educational posters" in hallways advertise candy such as Skittles, 3 Musketeers and Starburst (Education Digest, 2000).
• School lunch menus. Brand name foods are served, advertised and promoted in school cafeterias (Education Digest, 2000).
• Reward coupons: McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza provide coupons for pop, french fries, burgers or pizza as a reward in reading programs (Education Digest, 2000).
• School buses: Some districts have sold ad space on the sides and even the tops of school buses (Time Magazine, 1999).
• Teaching materials: industry teaching units, videos, and contests may incorporate products, brands or corporate viewpoints (Consumer Reports, 1998).
• Channel One: Viewed daily in 12,000 middle schools and high schools by about 8 million teenagers, students are required to watch a 12 minute program: 10 minutes of info-news and 2 minutes of commercials (The Center for Commercial-Free Public Education).
• Commercial search engines, web sites and student newspapers (United States General Accounting Office, 2000).
• School Web sites supported by businesses that include direct advertising aimed at students and parents (The Christian Science Monitor, 2001).
• Athletic fields, scoreboards, gyms, libraries, playgrounds, classrooms: Corporate donors are recognized for their donations by placing their names or logos in prominent locations (New York Times, 2000).
• School events paid for or sponsored by corporations, i.e. Homecoming sponsored by Dr. Pepper (Time Magazine, 1999).
• Soft drink machines: schools are bargaining for exclusive contracts with soft drink suppliers like Coke and Pepsi (Manning, 1999).
• Fundraising: school groups receive a percentage of sales of branded products (United States General Accounting Office, 2000).
• Student organizers and other products sold in schools to students. The school receives a small percentage for items sold in return for advertising (United States General Accounting Office, 2000).

A United States General Accounting Office Report (2000) identified four areas of commercial activities in schools: (1) sale of products, (2) direct advertising - for example, advertisements in school corridors and on school buildings, (3) indirect advertising - for example, corporate sponsoring of educational materials or teacher training, and (4) market research. They found that state laws and regulations pertaining to commercialism in schools were not comprehensive. In fact in most states local school officials make the decisions regarding commercial activity in their schools.

Building brand loyalty among students and market research is the primary focus of these activities. For instance, teachers are enlisted by Channel One, watched daily by 8 million students, to hand out discount coupons for J.C. Penney jeans and Subway sandwiches (Seattle Times, 1999).

School administrators, looking for ways to fund programs in cash-strapped schools, say they cannot afford to turn away company advertisements and corporate sponsorships.

For more information:

The Center For Commercial-Free Public Education
1714 Franklin Street, Suite 100-306
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510-268-1100
http://www.commercialfree.org

How To Do a Commercialism Walkthrough

• The Center For Commercial-Free Public Education http://www.commercialfree.org (visited 9/28/01).
• Consumer's Union (1995). Captive kids: A report on commercial pressure on kids at school. Web site: www.igc.org/consunion/other/captivekids/index.htm (visited 9/26/01).
• The Christian Science Monitor (2001, May 2). Flap erupts over ads on school websites. USA, p2.
• Commercialism in Education Research Unit (updated 9/28/01). Web site: http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/index.htm (visited 9/28/01).
• Consumer Reports (1998, September). Reading, writing and buying? p45.
• Education Digest (2000, January). Junk-food marketing goes elementary. p32.
• Manning, Steven. Students for sale: How corporations are buying their way into America's classrooms. The Nation, September 27,1999. Web site: http://past.thenation.com/issue/990927/0927manning.shtml (visited 10/8/01).
• Molnar, Alex and Reaves, Joseph A. (2001, September). Buy me! Buy me! Fourth annual report on trends in schoolhouse commercialism. Commercialism in Education Research Unit, University of Arizona. Web site: http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/Reports/ceru/ceru-0109-101/ceru-0109-101.htm (visited 10/1/01).
• New York Times (2000, April 7). School board considers deal to swap ads for computers. pA1.
• Seattle Times (1999, July 26). What's you learn in school today, Timmy? pE1.
• Time Magazine (1999, April 19). Classrooms for sale. p44.
• United States General Accounting Office, Report to Congressional Requesters (2000, September 8). Public education: Commercial activities in schools. #GAO/HEHS-00-156, Web site: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00156.pdf(visited 10/2/01).

Last revised: 10/9/01