Nader on education and commercialism

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert				October 28, 2000

Following is a statement by Ralph Nader on education and commercialism.

http://www.votenader.com/issues/edu_commercialism.html

Our children are now exposed to the most intense marketing onslaught in
history.  From the age of 9 months to 19 years, precise corporate
selling is beamed directly to children separating them from their
parents, an unheard of practice formerly, and teaching them how to nag
their beleaguered parents as unpaid salesmen for companies. There is a
bombardment of their impressionable minds -- including, increasingly, in
the schools themselves. 

"In-school marketing has become a growing industry," according to a
recent General Accounting Office report, Commercial Activities in
Schools. "Some marketing professionals are increasingly targeting
children in school, companies are becoming known for their success in
negotiating contracts between school districts and beverage companies,
and both educators and corporate managers are attending conferences to
learn how to increase revenue from in-school marketing for their schools
and companies." Channel One and ZapMe! deliver advertisements to a
captive audience of school kids watching their television programming or
using their computers. Some companies have managed to procure space on
school buses or in schools for their billboard advertisements. Corporate
propaganda masquerading as educational materials are presented to
unsuspecting children. Coke and Pepsi bribe their way into school halls,
and cut deals with school administrators to promote their product. 

This does not prepare the next generation to become literate,
self-renewing, effective citizens for a deliberative democracy. Instead,
this commercial traffic breeds a rat-pack product conformity and makes
children even more vulnerable to commercial messages outside of school 

This situation is intolerable, and it must not be tolerated. Schools
must be prohibited by law from contractually obligating students to
watch commercial advertising during school time, and commercial signage
should be banned from indoor school property and school buses. Schools
must be adequately funded, so that administrators and teachers -- whose
job is to educate, not to advertise -- do not feel pressured to cut
deals with the corporate hucksters who want still more access to our
children, and to steadily increase their influence over the schools. 

<-----statement ends here------->

Commercial Alert opposes corporate exploitation of children and the
excesses of commercialism, advertising and marketing.  Commercial
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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