Take part in the National Ad Slam Contest!

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert			October 16, 2001

Commercial Alert today launched the first annual National Ad Slam
Contest.  The Ad Slam is a nationwide contest to expel advertisers from
schools.  We will award a $5,000 prize to the school that makes the best
and most creative effort to remove advertising and commercialism from
school premises during the 2001-2 school year.  We will award other
prizes for creativity, media coverage, and teamwork.  If you participate
with thousands of other activists across the country, we will all win.

In recent years, corporate marketers have invaded the schools.  Their
ads waste valuable school time, corrupt textbooks and curricula with
marketing, promote junk food and soda pop despite skyrocketing levels of
childhood obesity, and peddle boorish, violent and anti-social
entertainment.

"The Ad Slam is a civic contest to throw the hucksters out of school,"
said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert.  "We're going
to have plenty of fun as we rid the schools of Channel One, Coke, Pepsi
and the other marketers."

Anyone in any school community can participate.  Here is how you can get
involved:
1) Send us an email to tell us that you want to participate.  Our email
is alert@essential.org.
2) Visit our website for instructions for teachers, parents, and
students, at http://www.commercialalert.org/adslam/index.html.  If you
can't download the instructions, please email us at alert@essential.org
or call 503.235.8012, and we will fax, mail or email them to you.
3) Send this email to your friends and family members, teachers and
students.
4) Ask your favorite organizations to endorse the contest.  To endorse
the contest, send an email to alert@essential.org.
5) Make a contribution to the Ad Slam Contest prize fund. Visit this web
page for details: http://www.commercialalert.org/jointoday.html.
6) Learn more about commercialism.  Visit our website at
http://www.commercialalert.org.

The National Ad Slam Contest is endorsed by the National Council of the
Churches of Christ of the USA, Adbusters Media Foundation, Bioneers,
Center for a New American Dream, Center for Media & Democracy, Center
for Media Education, Center for Science in the Public Interest,
Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools, Citizens for Media
Literacy, Commercialism in Education Research Unit, Consumers Union,
Junkbusters, Motherhood Project of the Institute for American Values,
Mothering Magazine, New Mexico Media Literacy Project, Obligation,
Organic Consumers Association, Public Citizen, Rethinking Schools, Seeds
of Simplicity and the TV-Turnoff Network.

Commercial Alert's mission is to keep the commercial culture within its
proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting
the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and
democracy. 

Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically via our
mailing list <commercial-alert@lists.essential.org>. To subscribe, send
the word "subscribe" to alert@essential.org, or go to
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/commercial-alert.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
-- 
Gary Ruskin | gary@essential.org 
Commercial Alert | http://www.commercialalert.org
Congressional Accountability Project | http://www.congressproject.org
phone: 503.235.8012 | fax: 503.235.5073

To subscribe to Commercial Alert's email list, send the message 
"subscribe" to <alert@essential.org>.