In case you haven't heard, this January the Bentonville school board approved moving forward with putting advertisements on the back of buses. In a policy move championed by school superintendent Michael Poore to create a new revenue stream to help pay for transportation costs, Poore thinks the ads could generate up to $250,000 per year. While not official yet, the board voted to move ahead with the bidding process before committing to the ads. As one observer was quoted after the meeting, "Any way you can supplement schools for a lack of funds is a great idea, and it's not hurting anyone -- I mean it's a great way for local businesses to get the word out there ..."
But is it? The headlines have certainly been full of fiscal problems being confronted by school districts and some of the unusual and sometimes controversial solutions some have embarked on. In Indianapolis, students are enrolled in what would seem to be an unlikely school: The Lafayette Square Mall. There, amid the bustle of shoppers and the beeping of cash registers, students attend classes, work at part-time jobs for credit, walk the mall to fulfill a mandatory gym requirement and get their meals at the food court. But wonders Professor Alex Molnar of Arizona State University, who has studied this extensively, what is the cost to the student being educated in this type consumer environment? In the meantime, Indiana is tripling its commitment to these "mall" schools.
Faced with a $600,000 budget gap, the Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District in California offered to let businesses advertise themselves on a school walkway ($1,000 a brick), the library ($50,000), the science program ($100,000) or the entire district (price negotiable). While supporters of the proposal called it a "win-win" idea for the district and business, the superintendent of a neighboring district called the proposal "pretty troubling to me ... It would seem to me like we were advertising."
Advertisers are looking to move product. "It's a marketing ploy," said Sonny Vaccaro, former marketing director at Nike, "At the end of the day, we've got to sell a shoe and a sweat suit. I found out a long time ago that the avenue to success is through the lowest common denominator -- the high school kids." Weighing in more broadly on the subject, CBS News radio commentator Dave Ross observed sarcastically: "I give you education's true purpose in two words: brand loyalty."
The primary disadvantage of advertising in schools, according to marketing expert Brandon Gaille, is that it creates an influential impact on students -- especially young students -- that might not be beneficial. Children younger than 8 tend to believe everything they see or are told when it comes to corporate branding. "If they are exposed to certain brands every day as they ride the bus ... then they are going to crave these items and spend their money on them. Parents have little or no control over this brand exposure, and there could be marketing efforts in place that go against their personal family values, religious beliefs or similar problems."
The science-fiction film classic Blade Runner presented us with a dystopia future where advertising has almost completely enveloped humanity -- from giant screen projections in the sky to flying message boards with nonstop blaring ads. Is that our future? Shouldn't our kid's school environment be a close extension of parenting? Childhood for most is the only period left in our lifetime that one can fill in the blank spaces practicing the power of imagination and learning. And what does it say about us when we begin to allow that free space to be filled instead with adult concepts of consumerism?
Here is my challenge to Mr. Poore and the school board: Since you like ads on school buses so much, why don't each of you agree instead to "auto wrap" your cars. The ads are typically vinyl decals that almost seem to be painted on the vehicle, and which often cover a large portion of the car's exterior surface. They could pull in about $400 per month per car, with all proceeds going to school transportation. Some things an old sage once wrote, money shouldn't be able to buy.
NAN Our Town on 02/04/2016