NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Robert Weissman and Elizabeth Ben-Ishai (503) 235-8012
For Immediate Release: November 14th, 2011

Don't Increase Commercial Advertising in Schools, Commercial Alert tells Miami-Dade School District

Today, Public Citizen’s Commercial Alert sent a letter to the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Pubic Schools, Alberto Carvalho, urging the district not to move forward with plans for increased commercial advertising on school properties. Commercial Alert is a project of Public Citizen, a consumer protection organization based in Washington, D.C., with more than 225,000 members and supporters.

The text of the letter follows:

Dear Superintendent Carvalho,

Commercial Alert is a project of Public Citizen, a consumer protection organization based in Washington, D.C., with more than 225,000 members and supporters. We aim to keep commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy.

We write to urge the Miami-Dade County School District not to move forward with plans to allow increased commercial advertising on school properties. We understand that the financial pressures your school district currently faces make you eager to identify non-traditional sources of funding. We know your primary concern is to avoid shortchanging students as a result of budget cuts. However, subjecting children to even greater amounts of advertising is the wrong response. It will raise little revenue while undermining Miami-Dade’s educational and child development mission. Educational institutions should promote civic virtue and the public good, not commercial values.

As you know, childhood and adolescence are crucial periods for young pupils to develop their identities. Corporations exploit these developmental challenges, and convey through sophisticated marketing strategies that children should build their identities and judge their peers based on what they have, rather than on who they are. In the process, children end up with a damaged sense of self, superficial worldview, and a diminished sense of social responsibility. There is no need to overstate the case; certainly, many children navigate the world of hyper-marketing successfully. But it is nonetheless a negative influence – one that schools, of all places, should not be promoting. Children are already surrounded by near-constant advertising that promotes consumerism and commercial values. But the ubiquity of advertising is not a reason for allowing corporate naming rights and in-school advertising to persist – it is a reason why children need a sanctuary from a world where everything seems to be for sale.

Some advocates of granting corporate naming rights and allowing in-school advertising believe that setting appropriate guidelines for these practices can curb potential harms. But more often than not, these guidelines offer virtually no protection to students. For example, though Miami-Dade’s Advertising and Commercial Activities Policy (9700.01) does specify that advertising of food products that are prohibited from being sold to students on campuses will not be allowed, this may be insufficient to prevent advertising of unhealthy foods. Though the District’s wellness policy promotes healthier options, it still permits the sale of some “junk food” items. Corporations that sell harmful products to children will be among those most interested in targeting them by pursuing advertising opportunities. The District’s guidelines may not be able to prevent such products from being advertised. In school districts across the country that permit advertising, district guidelines have not prevented companies selling fast food, soda, and other unhealthful products from advertising on school properties.

But it is not only the presence of corporations selling unhealthy or morally questionable products in schools that raises concerns. Corporate advertisers advance values inconsonant with those schools stand for. Education should empower students to think critically and independently. Students should be encouraged to form their own beliefs, to question established ideas, and to develop intellectual curiosity. Marketing and advertising contravene these goals. Commercialism teaches students that everything has a price. In-school advertising and marketing schemes convey market rather than civic values and impede the ability of schools to function as open spaces where ideas are freely exchanged and the next generation of public-minded, conscientious, and virtuous students can grow.

Weighted against the real harms of school commercialism, the financial benefits of such schemes are minuscule. School advertising programs rarely bring in significant funds, and the small revenues often barely offset the administrative cost and burden of putting them in place. The Miami Herald (Oct. 19) reports that the District is currently negotiating with advertising management companies who broker agreements between advertisers and schools. Such companies often take a large cut of advertising revenues for themselves, profiting of the commercialization of our education system while leaving few financial benefits for schools.

We urge you to stop any plans for further advertising within the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and to remove any existing advertisements from school properties. We look forward to your response, and would be pleased to discuss these matters with you further.

Sincerely,

Robert Weissman
President
Public Citizen

Elizabeth Ben-Ishai
Campaign Coordinator
Public Citizen’s Commercial Alert