This Space for Sale - Captive Audience Included
Justin Bathon on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 9:08AM Today there is an AP story out about advertising on school buses to help schools make up budget deficits.
Washington lawmakers considered the idea of school bus advertising this year, and the concept is also being tossed around in Ohio, New Jersey and Utah. About half a dozen states already allow bus advertising — including Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas.
I'll keep this simple - this is gross and we need to avoid it. The commercialization of schools has always been a slippery slope that we must be vigilant against. The captive, impressionable audience that schools offer is so tantalizing to capital driven business interests that if we give them an inch, they'll take a foot or more.
I don't blame the superintendents that have utilized this method to get more revenue, but state departments or legislatures that authorize this type of activity are highly suspect. Superintendents will always push the envelope of entrepreneurship - but state offices must be responsible for the bounds of acceptability and ensure that we are treating our impressionable youth with caution - lest capitalism commoditize our kids on the government's watch.
Reader Comments (3)
I find it curious that you consider business messages so objectionable but don't seem to be concerned about the constant positive messages about government's role in society that such a captive, impressionable audience receives.
C.D. - The Government pays for it - I think they have some right to express a positive message. But, that assumes there is someone promoting a positive message about government in the school - which I am not sure there is - at least there is not in the way that corporations produce positive messages about themselves through the kind of marketing we are subjected to. And, that's also assuming that we should view the government as something distinct from ourselves ... but this is the wrong view of government. It is your government and my government - and these kid's government. They own it and thus should take some ownership in their own product. So, no, I have no problem with the government promoting positive messages about ourselves in the schools.
Justin, I understand your fear of the over-commercialization of the school environment, but I don't think that advertising on the side of school buses poses such a large danger. If there is a "slippery slope" to be afraid of, couldn't those specific threats be addressed when they come up? As it is, I don't think advertising on the OUTSIDE of a school bus speaks to any more of a captive audience of school children than billboards on the side of the road or heavily decaled autos driving by. If the fear is only that this signage will have an undue influence on the kids riding the bus, I don't buy it. It's not really any different from the examples I provided above as far as an effect on children. They're not really "captive" as passengers in a bus in the same way they are in the classroom. I think this could be a good way to raise revenue as long as it's restricted to this specific circumstance.