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Thursday August 11, 2005

Ads on School Busses

Broward just joined Dade and Palm Beach in feeding kids ads in yet one more spot: on the school bus. No big deal, right? Kids are showered with ads at every turn these days, and if schools can raise a few extra bucks this way, why not?

This may well be a lost cause, but it’s just plain wrong (JPW). Kids get ads on TV, but their parents can turn it off. In principle, there’s a difference here: you don’t turn off sending your kid to school (not unless you want to be some home-schooling nutjob). True, sooner or later kids will have to learn to deal with ads. But showering them with more ads sooner does not help: the fact is that until a certain age, kids can’t distinguish between ads and non-ads. We’re turning today’s generation of kids into subservient consumers in a way no previous generation has.

Everybody knows you pay for what you get one way or another. Free stuff has ads, subscription stuff has few or no ads. Well, we’re supposed to be guaranteeing our kids an education, and by exposing them to ads, we’re making them pay for that education in a way that’s unfair and immoral, and has serious unknown consequences. TV ads influence kids in ways that are unfair, too. But those ads are served up by selfish corporations. These ads come from our kids’ school system. When you look at the results, it’s just not worth it.

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  1. not new...    Thu Aug 11, 01:59 PM #  

    the dade and broward public school systems have been selling this sacred school space for a long time, it’s just new that they expand it to the busing extensions. it’s shameful and ill-conceived but i’m afraid that somehow this will be the norm; any space at all is game, especially if it’s public space…define public…?

  2. alesh    Thu Aug 11, 07:07 PM #  

    yeah… it’s not nearly as bad as, for example, pizza hut in school cafeterias, which i understand is going on in many places. Many people have made this argument better then I have, but i just wanted to stand up and say that it’s wrong. It’s futile, but it needs to be said.

  3. Miami Harold    Fri Aug 12, 01:52 PM #  

    Ads are good.
    Not only do they earn money for the schools,
    saving taxes for the citizens,
    but advertisements teach important life lessons
    that kids won’t ever learn in school.
    For example:
    they teach how businesses lie and steal and manipulate,
    and that the only thing that matters is the bottom line.
    Ads demonstrate how total frauds have gained authority
    and that “role models” are gullible, bought-off poltroons.
    Ads instruct you to hork up what’s shoved down your throat
    (and shit out what’s stuffed up your ass)
    before it causes irreparable damage.
    Ads are good. We want more ads!
    And fewer kids! And shorter school bus rides!

  4. Skinner    Fri Aug 12, 01:58 PM #  

    “….by exposing them to ads, we’re making them pay for that education in a way that’s unfair and immoral, and has serious unknown consequences.”

    Ya gotta love this kind of scientific conclusion. And ya gotta beware those “Serious Unknown Consequences,” the inevitable result from exposing children to ads in a school bus. Behold the mighty mind-melding power of a Post Toasties box!
    Lord what a load of balls.
    If children actually see 40,000 teevee ads per year, as is claimed here, how on earth will 45 minutes twice a day in an ad-plastered school bus impact them? Won’t it turn into imperceptible background blur, just like their teachers and parents? And everything else not on a flat screen monitor?

  5. Chad Harris    Sat Aug 13, 02:57 AM #  

    Miami Harold is a fuggin POET. Wow.

    This really is horrible and it is a big deal. There has to be sacred ground free of ad space, otherwise we lose.

    There’s a Dell pavilion downstairs in the FIU library hocking knock-off iPods. Now, that’s in a University for god’s sake.

  6. Hugh Bris    Mon Aug 15, 08:42 AM #  

    Chad Harris: There is a sacred ground free of ad space. It’s called your brain. Filter out the ads out and you’ll be just fine. But out here in the 3 dimensions, we use them to pay the bills.

    Afterthought: A gallon Jesus Christ’s personal hemaglobin dribbled on the seats, and the interior of a school bus would still never be described as “sacred.” And kids aren’t “sacred” either, altho blowhard politicians and pastors like to talk as if they are. This fight ain’t worth it.

  7. tater tott    Mon Aug 15, 01:06 PM #  

    you’re filtering out a lot more then ads, hugh.

    we’re talking about kids here, who can’t filter them out the way adults can.

    how, on principle, should the government decide how much tax revenue should be replaced with ad revenue? why not abolish the income tax and just force people to look government-administrated ads for an hour a day? why not cover the front of every single building with ads and let our government run off the revenue?

    well, we don’t do that. or, we’re just starting down the path . . . but why the fuck should we start with kids???

  8. Miami Harold    Mon Aug 15, 05:03 PM #  

    Seems like an ad plastered on the front of every building
    is in fact the way we’re going, but this isn’t new.
    Theaters, sports arenas, and even office buildings
    have been branded for years,
    just like radio and television programs.
    Ever hear of the Chrysler Building?
    Bank One Stadium? Office Depot Center?
    General Electric Theater?
    The Gold Medal Flour Power Hour?
    Paul Bunyan’s Balls Tire and Auto Center?
    (Okay, I made that one up.)

    What’s the difference whether or not kids can filter out ads
    the way adults (allegedly) can?
    Where’s the harm in kids recognizing Tony the Tiger
    or the Gatorade slogan or the Roach Motel theme song?
    Kids and adults are fucking wearing ads—
    like sports logos on their shirts and shoes and underwear.
    Until they get their own money, kids aren’t even consumers.
    The reason adults get upset about these is
    they’re unwilling to unleash the NO! bomb
    on their little larval offspring,
    and acting sanctimoniously indignant about school policy
    is the one opportunity they get in the wretched impotent lives
    to huff and puff.

  9. tater tott    Mon Aug 15, 05:55 PM #  

    you punny-namers clearly don’t have any kids. Parents have to fight the NO! battle every single day, and it’s a loosing fight when you’re dealing with the thousands of commercial ads kids see every day… parents are feeling the pain, and there is absolutly no justification for our school system to contribute to that.

    As for Office Depot Center, our pal Harold misses the point alltogether; that’s an ad put up up by the building’s owner, not the government, which is what we’re talking about.

    HELLO! There is a fucking difference between what the government does and what private individuals and private companies do—the government has the power to COERCE people, and the government ANSWERS to the people. It has no justification fo hawking frosted flakes.

  10. Sean    Mon Aug 15, 08:10 PM #  

    Helloooo yourself, Tater Totty.

    Those of us who aren’t parents appreciate the contribution of private funds (like advertisers) to the educational system—saves us tax money to educate YOUR kids.

    And remember: the school system is not the government. No, it’s not private industry, but unlike the government, it cannot coerce people (unless you let it). It answers to the people about as well as government does (is “pis-poorly” a word”?). However, you may opt out in numerous ways, such as private school or home-schooling.

    So yes, its decision to accept ads is more like Office Depot Center’s sponsorship agreement than not. The school’s justification for plastering ads on its buses, putting Coke machines in the lunchroom, accepting Nike money for the sports program, etc., is to make money, plain and simple.

    Your job, as a parent, is to educate, or at least discipline, your sprung fetus to tune this shit out. Nobody said it was easy, you poor suffering fellow, although I suspect your parents (and theirs, depending on where they’re from) had a much rougher time with staying alive, keeping fed, finding clothing, keeping a roof over their heads, etc. than any of us do. From what I hear and what I can see, we have it pretty good this century. Cushlamochree, lad, nobody’s kid ever died from school bus advertising.