-Caveat Lector-
Is your schoolchild watching too much television? Eating too many
> junk foods and drinks instead of what's healthy? Nagging you to buy
> expensive sneakers? too easily swayed by advertising? If so, why are
> the schools encouraging all those things?
>
> Commercialism in the public schools is "widespread and on the rise,"
> according to a recent report of the Government Accounting Office
> requested by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
> Advertising hits the school children hard, in signs on school buses,
in
> the classroom, through exclusive soft drink contracts, and through
> the in-class television program called Channel One, which includes
> two minutes of commercials every school day.
>
> In-school commercialism exists in all 50 states, but only 19 states
> regulate in-school commercial activities. There is a wide variety in
the
>
> way school policies address this issue.
>
> Michigan fails to regulate commercial activities at all, while New
> Mexico specifically allows advertising on school buses. California,
> New York, Florida, Illinois and Maine have policies expressly
> permitting or prohibiting at least three types of commercial
activities.
>
> New York generally prohibits commercial activities on school
> premises. In California, school boards must hold hearings before
> approving many commercial contracts.
>
> In 1994 a preschool teacher launched the fad of featuring brand-
> name products in a children's book. After it was turned down by 35
> publishers, her "M&M's Brand Counting Book" became
> Charlesbridge's biggest seller.
>
> Now we see children's books featuring many brand-name candies
> and snacks such as Froot Loops, Cheerios, M&Ms, Pepperidge
> Farm Goldfish, Reese's Pieces, Skittles, Hershey's chocolates and
> Oreo cookies. This trend has become popular with some preschool
> and kindergarten teachers who say they like the books because the
> children can count the candies or pieces of cereal and then be
> rewarded by eating them.
>
> More recently, brand-name books have been turning up in elementary
> school classrooms. Titles include "Reese's Pieces: Count by Fives,"
> "Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book," and "Skittles Math
> Riddles."
>
> Not everyone approves of this trend. Some specialty children's
> bookstores have refused to stock these books and some teachers
> have described them as "an abuse." Some parents, pediatricians and
> educators worry that such books "will engrave snack food brands in
> toddler's impressionable minds, hook them on junk food, and lead to
> eating problems later in life."
>
> Though books peddling brand-name products have sold millions of
> copies ("The Cheerios Play Book" has sold 1.2 million copies) and
> have been published by major publishing houses, some publishers
> disapprove of the trend. A spokesman for Random House's children's
> division called the books "advertising and P.R. for the food
> manufacturers, and as such, vaguely reprehensible."
>
> Classroom commercialism began with when an outfit called Channel
> One began offering schools free television equipment in exchange for
> airing 12 minutes of programming, including two minutes of
> commercial advertising, in class every school day. Since 40 percent
> of middle and high school students nationwide now watch these
> commercials every day, corporations lined up fast to pay prime-time
> rates to peddle their products to captive student audiences.
>
> Channel One's commercials advertise junk foods, soft drinks, video
> games, expensive sneakers, movies, magazines, and TV sitcoms.
> The most objectionable are the many hard-sell ads for movies and
> television shows that contain vulgarities, obscenities, blasphemies,
> sexual innuendoes, disrespect for parents, or violence.
>
> The legacy of Channel One is that Coke, Pepsi, Burger King, Nike,
> Kellogg and other corporations are now paying schools to place their
> ads in hallways, gymnasiums, cafeterias, and on school buses and
> book covers. Multi-million-dollar contracts have turned some schools
> into virtual sales agents for Coke and Pepsi.
>
> One 10-year, $8.4 million contract requires a Colorado school district
> to sell 70,000 cases of Coke products per year. A letter from a
> district official to school administrators urged them to meet sales
> goals by allowing students virtually unlimited access to Coke
> machines, locating the machines where they will be accessible to
> students all day, and even allowing students to drink Coke products
> in class.
>
> Some school boards and parents are striking back against this tide
> of commercialism. The Bucks County (PA) School Board voted 7-0 in
> September to reject Channel One because of its "heavily
> commercialized content."
>
> ZapMe!, another corporation that offers computer equipment to
> schools in return for advertising to captive students, announced after
> its stock took a nose-dive in October that it will turn the company
> toward a new direction.
>
> Even some students are waking up to how they are being used. An
> enterprising high school sophomore in Oil City, PA has created a
> web site to expose what he calls the "problem" of Channel One,
> principally its advertising for "junk food, shoes and video games."
>
> Phyllis Schlafly column
> 11-15-00
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