School Bus Advertising
By Saxon Baird - Sep 15th, 2008 at 4:18 pmMichigan school children may soon be regularly exposed to advertisements on their school buses according to Advertising Age:
A number of the state’s cash-strapped school districts are in talks with marketing groups to broker deals to sell ads on buses.
“Times are hard,” said Mike Gwizdala, director-transportation at Bay City public schools. “The fuel prices are definitely affecting all transportation, whether it’s a school bus or a metro bus. It’s definitely having an effect on a lot of people, and school districts are in that boat.”
Advertising in school buses is not entirely new. The article explains that Colorado’s Cherry Creek School District in Colorado brought in revenue from advertising on the outside of its buses. In addition, an organization called BusRadio, which creates kid-friendly radio programming for school buses in 28 states, dedicates four minutes out of every hour of programming to advertising.
The controversy surrounding advertising on school buses is that the children are in a controlled area and thus forcibly exposed to the ads. Considering the plethora of other ways in which children are constantly exposed to advertising, it is hard to imagine this making any more of an impact on a child than does advertising delivered via outlets like television. Nevertheless, the inability of parents to regulate what their children are exposed to has certainly leave some concerned and the issue hotly contested.
In September 2006, 46 child advocacy groups, including Alliance for Childhood, American Family Association, and the National Parent-Teacher Association publicly encouraged school districts to not work with BusRadio, stating :
Whatever BusRadio advertises, children as young as six will have no choice as to whether to listen or not. Nor will their parents be able to exercise any control over their children’s exposure. The sales pitches will fill the bus and interfere with those children who want to read, study, talk, pray, or do almost anything else other than listen to the programming. According to the Harris poll, 69% of youth advertising and marketing professionals believe that “advertising on school buses” is “inappropriate.”
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September 15th, 2008 at 11:24 pmSo who cares that the National PTA is strongly opposed to this?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:46 pmWe can make money off of the children. Who cares about their souls?
Public Schools are broken. We need to fix them.
Parents get what they deserve!