Commercials in Schools: So What?

Sep 20, 2000 -- Members of the Citizens Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools attended the Seattle School Board meeting October 11 to protest commercials aimed at students on Channel 1 news broadcasts and the N2H2 web filter and browser. "The school district is selling my time to corporations to try to manipulate me," said Garfield High senior Alexandra Bradbury. "The ads on N2H2 can't be avoided," said Laura Grow, a teacher at Cooper Elementary in West Seattle. She said the N2H2 system, which claims to filter out objectionable web sites isn't necessary. "Kids will learn responsible internet use with good monitoring and good teaching," she said. Parent David Wall said he objected to commercial messages aimed at his children in the public schools. The school district reportedly received $14,000 in hardware and $500 a month in exchange for N2H2 services. David Wall

Well, these "really important" issues are actually tightly knotted to the debate about corporate presence in schools. Watch how it works.

Schools are chronically, critically and shamefully underfunded. Like any desperate soul, schools search around for stuff to sell to make ends meet. Corporate behemoths want something schools have--a captive audience of young, vulnerable people with brain space available to absorb brand logos, product jingles and exhortations to BUY, BUY, BUY. So there's a buyer and a seller.

Why are schools underfunded? Because political realities in America allow our elected representatives to spend money on far less important things than education, and because corporate interests work to keep down taxes on rich corporations and the people who run them.

So why are those the political realities? Well, because the public has a hard time focusing on politics and issues of civics. Most Americans are busy with work and families, and when we have leisure time we're watching a heck of a lot of television. When we watch television our brains are not focused on issues of civics or politics or public affairs--things like how our tax dollars are spent and why our officials value defense over education.

While we're on the topic, let's remind ourselves of the purpose of television. It's for selling products. Pure and simple. Television shows are produced for the purpose of securing sponsors who will buy ad space to generate profits for corporate media.

Who's watching television? Consumers.

The straightforward goal of selling our kids specific products is actually not the primary goal of corporate advertising in schools. It's only the secondary goal of corporations like Coca-cola (which has a contract with Seattle Public Schools to be the exclusive provider of soft drinks in our schools) and N2H2 (which has a contract to show our kids ads on their internet pages every time they access the web at school).

The primary goal of school-based advertising is to turn young people into life-long consumers. Consumers are people who have their emotional needs met by buying stuff. Once people are focused on their roles as consumers, they forget about their roles as citizens.

The purpose of public schools is to develop a respect for the intellect, rather than cultivating an unquenchable desire for products. Another important purpose of schools is to acculturate our kids to their roles as citizens.

A consumer is not a citizen. As a faculty member at the University of Washington, I love the students who arrive in the classroom with an attitude of citizenship. They're there to help the class come together and work to learn about the topic. The students who arrive as consumers are there to be taught the topic, and they'd better darn well get their money's worth.

If soda pop and cosmetic companies had their way, our schools would turn into Seattle's Aurora Avenue North--a visual assault of blaring, shouting messages to BUY THIS STUFF NOW.

This issue arose in Seattle's public schools some years ago when Channel One wanted 12 minutes a day of our kids' attention while a "news" show with ads was played on equipment provided for "free." In exchange for a bunch of cheesy television sets, we gave away our kids' brain space and time. When the controversy erupted again during Superintendent John Stanford's tenure, he appointed a "Commercial Activity Committee" to evaluate the issues and make recommendations. That committee met for a year and made a comprehensive set of recommendations, sent to Joseph Olchefske in September of 1998.

The recommendations have gone nowhere. Lack of adequate school funding is the underlying cause of this problem. The good people at Seattle Public Schools don't want to sell our kids--it's just that they're desperate souls looking for a way to make ends meet. But turning our schools into billboards has the effect of transforming our kids into consumers, which turns them off to their roles as citizens. If we deprive our society of citizens and fill it with consumers, in the long run we will actually heighten the threat to meeting our school funding responsibilities.

So, let's keep our eyes on the prize. We're here to produce citizens. We have to pile barricades at the schoolhouse doors to keep out the corporate interests that would sap our kids' brains and turn them into consumers. It's for the good of education and serious long-term commitment to education funding.

Amy Hagopian, mother of three Seattle Public School kids, works in the University of Washington's School of Medicine as associate director of Programs for Healthy Communities. She was a school board member between 1990 and 1993, but she hopes no one holds that against her.

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