How ad-free are we at school?
Advertising is everywhere – from television to schools to the clothes we wear. In exchange for funding, some American schools have given companies space to promote their products to students. How much advertising are we, at SIS, exposed to? Does school give us a break from advertising or are we being constantly bombarded with adverts even when we are studying? Do we even notice the ads around us?
SIS hasn’t been paid by companies for advertising space in our school. This doesn’t mean that there’s no advertising here. Ads enter our school in sneaky but clever ways. They walk in the door, on the feet of students, dancing through the corridor, enjoying all the attention of the big, jealous eyes staring at them. Students are walking ads for Nike, Adidas, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and many other brands. You can hardly call the school ad-free with all these ads around.
Our computer covers are an unnoticeable marketing tool. Besides protecting our laptops, they also function as advertising for SIS. Every time we take out our Mаcbook, we unintentionally promote the school and let everyone know where we study. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is definitely advertising.
Have you noticed all the information about summer courses that we get? One of them was for a course at Harvard costing an astonishing 11,320 US dollars for three weeks. This is definitely promotion of a commercial organization. How many of us see it as an advertisement?
Is it ethical to have advertising in schools? We might expect the school to be ad-free, but in today’s society that’s an impossible goal to accomplish. The important message is that we all recognize that we are being targeted by marketing 24/7. Look at the ads around you with a new perspective!
Chaim Goldberg • Sep 1, 2015 at 21:55
I think that those are not ads at all, as they do not really have any message, unlike slogans like “Buy Coca-Cola!”. I think Coca-Cola is actually a really good company, and they would never advertise to kids, by saying something like “Coca-Cola is full of sweet taste and is very good for you!”. I think there are more advertisement everywhere else than at school, noone at school goes up to you and says “Coca-Cola is the greatest thing that ever happened to me!”. Besides, you’d probably find more advertisements in internet comments, comments like “Everyone enjoys Coca-Cola, except losers and social outcasts!” and “Drink Coca-Cola!”.