Following the questionable move of advertising on police cars, the Marion County School District in Florida is making an even more questionable move by considering the placement advertising on its school busses. The School Board will decide the issues on November 25 and will reportedly work with a Miami-based advertising firm to handle the placement. There is no word on what type of advertising will be allowed by the format will likely mirror posters similar to those on subways.
The County is considering this because they need the money. All school systems need money but using kid-focused advertising to generate much needed revenue is an iffy proposition. Ads on cop cars are one thing but to further inundate already ad-satiated children with more commercial messages is questionable.
Schools were once an innocent, commercial free zone but now with soft drink companies and others making deals with school districts, that innocence is over. Whether this is harmful to children will be debated for years to come. If I were to offer an opinion, it would be this. There should be a time of innocence in life where commercialism does not enter in with its powerfully persuasive messages selling things people don’t really need or want. Young minds have enough trouble filtering through the information that is relevant to their daily lives. Throwing commercial messaging into that mix is likely to overload children’s minds and interfere with learning. The age at which a kid becomes indoctrinated into commercial culture gets younger every year. Let’s not get to the point where a newly delivered baby, eyes just cleared by the doctor, stares at the ceiling of the delivery room and sees a McDonald’s logo.
