November 23rd, 1998
An Icon From Our Sponsor
By Brad Stone
Newsweek
It was a tempting deal for a cash-strapped school: 15 new computers, a powerful server, on-location teacher training and a speedy satellite connection to the Internet—all free. But Tom Wilson, the technology coordinator at Clayton Valley High School outside Oakland, knew there had to be a catch. There was. The proposition made last April by the Zap Me! Corp. of San Ramon, Calif., was a Faustian bargain of sorts. In return for all the valuable equipment, services and technical support, the school agreed to accept ads in a corner of the screen.
Once upon a time, the classroom was a commercial-free zone. When Whittle Communications’ Channel One was introduced in 1989, both California and New York banned it in their public schools—despite the offer of free TVs—because of ads in the daily news broadcast. But those high principles may soon disappear as more and more schools rush to get wired. Computers are big-ticket items, and many districts are struggling just to provide the basics: books and desks. That’s where new business like ZapMe! come in. “Companies see an open marketplace,” says Michael Zastrocky, research director for academic strategy at the Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based research firm.
ZapMe!, which officially launched last month, has put new Pentium II PCs into about 70 schools and plans to be in 200 by the year-end. But the computers can be used only with the ZapMe! Netspace, a blue-bordered Web browser with ads that rotate in a two- by four-inch “dynamic billboard” in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. ZapMe! requires that the service be used by students four hours a day. On a recent Monday morning at Clayton Valley High School, students didn’t even seem to notice the ads from GTE and Compaq. They were too busy e-mailing pen pals in Berlin.
Still, Ralph Nader’s watchdog group Commercial Alert called ZapMe! a “corporate predator.” Its director, Gary Ruskin, says: “I think it’s outrageous that parents, should have this shoved down their kids’ throats.” But ZapMe! president Frank Vigil is unrepentant: “There is a large gap between what the schools need and their resources . . . We are trying to provide a pragmatic solution.” He also points out that students are going to find ads all over the Web anyway.
And ZapMe! isn’t the only company putting ads in classrooms. The Cambridge, Mass.-based Highwired. Net creates free Web sites for the student newspapers of 500 schools, then packages in ads from the likes of the U.S. Navy. Pursuing a somewhat different strategy, the Ontario-based ScreenAd is installing screen savers with rotating ads on classroom computers. The company then splits the profits 60-40 with the schools. One banner ad reads, PEPSI: DEVELOP A THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE.
ZapMe! is the most ambitious such venture. Boston school administrator considered it and recently announced alliances with other companies. Steve Gagg, technology adviser to Boston’s mayor, says the corporate presence still troubles him. “We need to take a step back and ask, is this what we want for our students? Is there any way around it?” Without an easy answer to that question, look for more bill-boards among the blackboards.