In my home state of Utah, a bill was recently shot down that proposed allowing private companies to advertise on the outside of school buses, just like they do city buses, with all proceeds going directly to public education.
I say that as long as the ads are approved by the school district and won't have a negative impact on the kids, I'm all for it. I see nothing to lose, but a lot of money to gain.
What are your thoughts on this?
On the one hand I must object to even more consumer whoring. On the other, a few ads on a bus can't possibly be worse than the ads kids already see everyday on TV, the internet, in magazines, on their own clothes, at the vending machines at school, in the yearbook, at the store and pretty much everywhere else in life.
ReplyDeleteBut while this may help the school with their budget issues it does not solve the REAL cause of budget issues: over bloated adminstration, poor planning and indifference from the public.
No no no no no!!! Why do we have to commodify everything and slap a commercial on everything? It doesn't matter if it's something innocuous, it's complete bs and there is already too much advertising in children's lives. What is the statistic again? By the time U.S. children are 5 years old they have seen 10,000 commercials, by the time they are 15 it's 4 times as many. So what, like, there's an empty space there on the side of the bus and god knows we don't want to PAY for education, so LET'S SELL IT AND ADVERTISE SOMETHING! BS BS BS !!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we are neighbors (I teach in Utah) but I disagree with the whole advertising on school buses. What ever happened to the good old days when you didn't have to pee in a bathroom stall and see an AD. I was at my father-in-laws large construction company, and they had company memos in the bathroom stalls. Talk about being "OVER STIMULATED". It is true that Utah and practically every other state needs more money for education. I have 40+ kids in every one of my classes and I teach in a teeny tiny portable classroom.
ReplyDeleteOkay I see two major issues with advertising with anything through a school:
ReplyDeleteFirst, advertising is already a powerful force, especially on children's minds, without the school basically endorsing a product. It is coming from a source that they trust, how can a six year old defend themselves from that?
And second, maybe this is only a NYS thing, but as far as I know you cannot regulate who you sell advertising space to. You are not allowed to discriminate even against companies that many people find objectionable. This could include extreme cases such as alchohol ads (although I do doubt that most companies would want that kind of negative publicity) to church ads. I can definately see many parents upset at that sort of thing.
How could an ad negatively affect a child? Seriously. I am sick and tired of people making these absurd claims that words and images can HURT people. Back it up with some scientific evidence, or stop treating kids like their brains are fabrege eggs. If your kids can't handle certain images or ideas, then you're a bad parent, because images and ideas cannot negatively effect normal children. If you believe that kids can be harmed by ideas before they're "ready" for them, are you even doing anything to MAKE them ready?
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