Selling Out Our Kids

Everywhere you look nowadays, something is being advertised. Whether it's fast food on billboards or cars on television advertisements are part of our everyday lives. It's not hard to believe that corporate America is now trying to attract consumers at a younger age by advertising at schools. Corporate sponsorship should not be allowed in our district because we are selling out our kids, it's not worth the money and students and teachers don't necessarily approve of it.

By allowing corporate sponsorship in schools we are selling out our children and making them believe that we approve of these companies. Corporations are always trying to attract new consumers. "Almost every large corporation sponsors some type of in-school marketing program. Many also sponsor curriculum materials salted with brand names and corporate logos" (Manning). Students are being exposed to product advertisements from almost every direction making them more likely to remember certain brands and companies when they are out. Not all large companies are not out to promote education. The goal of most companies is "to get them started young--and hopefully keep them for life--that's what brand loyalty is all about" (Manning). By making certain products a part of a person's life from a young age they will be more likely to purchase that product later on in life. This could be due to habit or just not wanting to change. When companies advertise they take advantage of that. Not only that, but some schools that are under corporate sponsorship must meet sales quotas in order to keep their sponsorship. A letter from district official John Bushey instructed principals "to allow students virtually unlimited access to Coke machines and to move the machines to where they would be 'accessible to the students all day" and he also "urged teachers to allow students to drink Coke in the classroom'" (Manning). By doing this, school administrators are pushing this influence on our kids.

Not only are we selling out our kids, but we are selling them out for next to nothing. The annual school budget for Colorado Springs "$165 million" and when you break down their 10-year, $8.4 million contract it "works out to be a payment of $840,000 per year, or .5 percent of the total yearly budget" (Manning). $840,000 a year is nothing compared to the budget. Corporations are gaining so much and in return schools are getting nowhere near how much the companies are making in profits from their advertising.

Finally, corporate sponsorship is not necessarily approved by the students or teachers. A fifth grade math teacher at Steele Elementary

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