Advertisers have discovered a fertile feeding ground for promotions on public school campuses, and lots of districts have jumped on the money cart for big payoffs. But for schools, issues like this one make us ask the question: Is the cash worth the advertisements bombarding students?

What about Health in Schools?

Monday through Friday more than eight million students watch a news program designed especially for them. It covers domestic and international news and a variety of subjects like personal health and wellness, money and entertainment. Often it's the only news the students get throughout their day.

Channel One, the 10-minute broadcast, breaks down headlines for middle and high school students. In recent years groups like Commercial Alert, an organization dedicated to keeping the commercial culture out of schools, have protested the newscast because of the two minutes of commercial advertising it plugs throughout the program.

The group calls the news portion of the broadcast "banter and fluff," and says it misuses mandatory attendance laws to force children to watch commercial advertising. Not only that, they say it wastes school time and tax dollars, corrupts the integrity of public education and promotes the wrong values to children.

Most school officials seem to disagree. Those that use Channel One tend to renew their contracts at a rate of 99 percent. But critics still say that Snickers and Noxema ads aren't worth a second glance.

The New Pepsi Challenge

Large beverage suppliers like Pepsi and Coca-Cola are courting school districts for exclusive rights to place vending machines in school buildings with the promise of large payoffs for those who sign on. Most contracts last for 10 years, and districts can expect annual payouts of around $175,000.

Over the past three years, the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education estimates that 240 school districts in 31 states have sold exclusive rights to one of the three big soda barons eager to hook teenagers on Dr. Pepper, Pepsi or Coke. However, an investigation by the General Accounting Office last fall found that, while soda sales are the most lucrative commercial deal for schools, they still represent only a minute percentage of the schools’ budget.

So are the extra school supplies worth sugar-rushed students?

Harvard School of Public Health professor Grace Wyshak recently found that ninth and 10th-grade girls who sipped soda were three times more likely to break bones than those who quenched their thirst with other drinks. Worse, her study found that physically active girls who drank colas were five times more likely to break bones as physically active girls who didn't drink carbonated beverages at all. Wyshak believes the phosphoric acid in colas may interfere with the body's ability to use calcium. And a growing body of psychiatrists' work over the last decade fingers the caffeine in soda as a possible culprit in children's inability to sleep, concentrate, and stay on task.

All of the research being done on pop in school is giving soda suppliers a bad rap. But in general school administrators say that drinking the stuff is always up to the students, and that if parents have a sour taste for soda in school they should stop serving it at home.

Designer Textbooks

Channel One and soda pop are options for kids while they're at school. But the supplies they use to learn have also gotten a new look, and students can't opt out of a math book.

The Center for Commercial-Free Public Education says that a textbook that uses M&M candies to help students simplify fractions is a stroke of advertising genius. The textbook's publishers, McGraw-Hill Inc., received no money for the photos of M&Ms and other popular products used with math-word problems, and say that the products help give middle schoolers examples they can appreciate.

And now even the outsides of those and other textbooks have gotten into the game since the Philip Morris company distributed 13-15 million book covers, with the intention of sending out 13 million more. The book jackets are part of an anti-smoking educational campaign. However, Commercial Alert claims that one cover looks like a colorful pack of cigarettes, and more importantly the covers promote to children the Philip Morris brand name, which is synonymous with tobacco and smoking.

Branded book jackets are an effective way to increase brand recognition, says the group. One market research study found that schoolchildren had an extremely high brand recall of up to 74 percent for brands promoted on book covers distributed by the company that sends out the Philip Morris book jackets.

Goodbye, Coke High

So how can parents shield their kids from potential, unsolicited advertising? Keep this rule of thumb: If you don't want your kids doing it at school, don't let them do it at home.

  • If you only let your kids drink soda on special occasions, explain why. Let them know that it could prevent them from doing their best on the athletic field, in the classroom, and even enjoying down time because of the effects of caffeine and carbonation. 
  • If TV is off-limits or you monitor what your kids watch due to promotions and advertising, tell the school that your child should spend those Channel One minutes in the library or with a tutor. You may even want to sit in on a viewing of the program to make sure it promotes your family's values and that it doesn't "cross the line" with its news coverage.
  • As parents you should keep an eye out for the homework your kids bring home. Take a look at their book jackets to make sure you approve of what they see every day. If you're concerned that your kids' school has become a fashion commercial vendor, take a tour and look for posters, vending machines or sponsors with logos advertising to your children.

If you feel your kids' school has sold out to advertisers, take action. Bring it up at the next PTA meeting or go directly to the principal. To really pack a punch, contact Commercial Alert at (503) 235-5073. And most importantly, help your children understand and observe the values established at home.


 

Lisa Hayes is a reporter for the Petoskey State Journal.