Commercialism in Schools

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Commercialism in Schools
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Commercialism in America

• We live in society inundated with commercials
• Sports are prime venues
• Athletes are walking billboards
• 2004--jockeys successfully sued Kentucky Horse
  Racing Association to wear ads in Kentucky Derby
• Sports venues carry names of corporations rather
  than politicians
• Fleet Center, Staples Center, Coors Field, Minute
  Maid Park
• Denvers Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium
• Bowl games named for corporate sponsors
• Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
• Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl

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• Not limited to sports
• Cities selling naming rights
• 2004History Channel agreed to provide New York
  City 15 million in free advertising to promote
  tourism in return, City will attach HCs name to
  various tourist attractions around town
• NYC exploring selling naming rights to subway
  stations, bus lines, bridges and tunnels

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• Hospitals and other non-profits
• Hasbro Childrens Hospital, Providence
• Ford Center for Performing Arts, Chicago
• General Motors Hall of Transportation at
  Smithsonian Museum, Washington

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• 2003
• More newborns named Armani than Ann
• More infants named Lexus and Mercedes than Nancy

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• Major League Baseballs attempt to put Spider-Man
  2 ads on bases
• Wizmark Interactive Urinal Communicator

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• July, 2000 Pizza Hut paid gt1 million for right
  to paint its new logo on side of Russian rocket
  delivering parts to International Space Station
• Logo burned up, but Pizza Hut figured it was
  worth it for media coverage of event
• viewed by over 500 million people
• Chose this method after rejecting as too
  expensive use of lasers to project image of its
  logo the size of Texas on moon

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1. Corporate sponsorships of school activities
2. Exclusive contracts
3. In-school advertising
4. Sponsored educational materials (SEMs)
5. Electronic commercial programming
6. Naming rights

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1. Corporate sponsorships of school activities

• Increased by 248 in 1990s
• Examples
• Eddie Bauer sponsored the final round of the
  National Geography Bee
• Students receive free book covers with ads for
  Nike and Calvin Klein
• Students who meet monthly reading goals rewarded
  with certificate for Pizza Hut pizza

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• General Mills Box Tops for Education program
• schools get .10 for each box top logo sent in
• can earn up to 10,000 a year
• 100,000 products sold
• Campbells Soup Labels for Education program
  provides a free computer for each 94,950 soup
  labels
• Campbells suggests goal of one label a day for
  each student

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2. Exclusive contracts

• Increased by 1,384 in 1990s
• Examples
• 240 school districts in 31 states sold exclusive
  rights to Coke, Pepsi or Dr. Pepper
• Colorado Springs signed agreement with Coke that
  will pay 8.4 million over ten years
• Part of deal is requirement to sell 70,000 cases
  of Coke products a year
• School officials urged principals to allow
  students unlimited access to Coke machines and
  allow students to drink Coke in class

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• In 1996, Wylie, Texas school district signed deal
  that shared rights between Coke and Dr. Pepper
• Each paid school 31,000 a year
• In 1998 district changed mind and signed
  exclusive deal with Coke worth 1.2 million over
  fifteen years
• Dr. Pepper sued for breach of contract
• District paid 180,000 to buy out Dr. Peppers
  contract

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• Greenbrier High in Evans, Georgia had Coke Day
• Part of the schools entry in national Team Up
  With Coca-Cola contest
• awarded 10,000 to school that came up with best
  plan for distributing Coke discount cards
• Student wore Pepsi t-shirt to school
• Suspended for being disruptive and trying to
  destroy the school picture

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3. In-school advertising

• Increased 539 in 1990s
• Examples
• Colorado Springs school buses advertise Burger
  King and Wendys
• Distributes book covers and school planners with
  ads for Kelloggs Pop-Tarts and pictures of FOX
  TV personalities

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• Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District
  in Texas rejected ads in classrooms
• Permitted Dr. Pepper and 7-Up to paint logos on
  rooftops of two high schools that lie under
  flight path of Dallas-Fort Worth airport

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4. Sponsored educational materials

• Increased by 1,875 in 1990s
• Examples
• ExxonMobil developed lesson plans about the
  flourishing wildlife in Prince William Sound
• Site of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
• Chips Ahoy has counting game where you figure
  number of chocolate chips in cookies
• Campbells Soup created science lesson where
  students compared viscosity of Prego sauce to
  Ragus
• Recalled after protests

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• General Motors provides economics texts in many
  high schools
• McGraw-Hill prints sixth-grade math book that
  includes brand names in math equations
• CU reports that 80 of such lessons contain
  wrong or misleading information

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5. Electronic commercial programming

• Also known as electronic marketing
• Increased by 139 in 1990s
• Offering programming or equipment in exchange for
  right to advertise to students
• Disproportionately shown in schools in low income
  communities with minority populations where least
  amount is spent on educational materials

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• Examples
• ZapMe! Corporation provided free computer labs
  and access to pre-selected web sites
• Schools agreed to use lab at least four hours per
  day
• Issues
• Web browser had constantly scrolling ads
• Company collected information on students
  browsing habits
• Under pressure from parents and citizens, forced
  to withdraw from market

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• Channel One provides programming to 8 million
  students in 12,000 classrooms
• 40 of US middle and high schools
• Daily 12-minute programming equivalent of six
  full school days a year
• 20 devoted to stories about politics, economy
  and cultural and social issues
• 80 is advertising, sports, weather, features and
  promotions

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• The advertiser gets a group of kids who cannot
  go to the bathroom, cannot change the station,
  cannot listen to their mother yell in the
  background, cannot be playing Nintendo, cannot
  have their headsets on.
• --Former president of Channel One on advantages
  for advertisers

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Naming rights

• 2001Alice Costello Elementary School in
  Brooklawn, NJ became first school to sell naming
  rights for gym to corporate sponsor
• Shop-Rite of Brooklawn Center
• 100,000 for 20 years
• Other sponsorships still available
• 5,000 to sponsor jump circle on floor
• 2,500 for baseline
• 500 for wall banner

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• Since then, similar deals being made around
  country--from Nike to local tire shops
• Three Texas towns sold naming rights to football
  stadiums for gt 1 million
• All three high schools in Plano, Texas have
  corporate sponsors for home football games
• Golden Chick Plano East vs. Garland game
• Florida Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union
  Stadium at Everglades High School

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• Chicago Rust-Oleum Field at Vernon Hills High
  School
• Southern California San Joaquin Section/Les
  Schwab Tires Division I Championship

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Efforts to stop commercialism in schools

• A number of organizations involved in effort
• Education Policy Studies Laboratorys Commercial
  Education Research Unit
• Commercial Alert
• Channel 1 campaign
• Adbusters