Should Schools Sell Advertising To Make Money? Cobb Does.
Decatur Metro | September 1, 2011After another recent discussion here about Decatur’s tuition students – and Decatur class sizes vs. the extra cash they bring into the school system – I thought I’d bring this to everyone’s attention.
I came across a pretty interesting article in the AJC hard-copy yesterday, titled “Cobb high schools sell marquee space”, which focused on Cobb County’s Lassiter High School efforts to sell local advertising on its marquee along busy Shallowford Road. The article states that a full rotation of ads could make the school system $50,000 in a given year and that recent funds were used to pay for new turf for the athletic field.
According to the article, other school systems around Atlanta – including DeKalb – have yet to consider advertising, while Forsyth County recently deemed it inappropriate. However, those in favor of such a set-up note that school sports venues have long allowed advertising. Is there an ethical difference between an outfield wall and a school marquee?
In this time of ongoing education penny-pinching, should more school systems look into allowing local advertising outside of schools? Or is it too sticky a situation?
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I oppose it.
Tasteful sponsorship that agrees with the mission statement of the school : Yes.
Re-branding the school to help pay for extra-curricular activities : No.
I don’t see any upside in Nike Decatur High to get new football uniforms. However, I do see value in Little Shop of Stories or even Amazone/B&N signs in the school library to help buy more/better (e)textbooks.
“…and that recent funds were used to pay for new turf for the athletic field.”
I see Cobb has its priorities in order. New turf is far more important than education.
Why single out Cobb? How much has Decatur spent on athletic facilities in the last few years?
Heh? Because they’re doing it their marquee, not just Athletic fields, as stated above. I’m asking” is there a difference”?
I think Mises is responding to the comment about turf being more important than education, not the marquee issue specifically.
My apologies. Was looking at it on my phone and couldn’t see who it was in reply to.
My comment was indeed in context of the post – not a comment on an island. Money raised from the marquee going specifically towards athletics rather than education sends the wrong message.
Yes.
How about we sell ads on warplanes, and pass the money on to the education system?
How about money from pigs going to help chickens ? From A to help B ?
We’re not talking about warplanes – we’re talking about raising money in ways and spending it in way that is perhaps not the best.
You could say that, or you could draw a connection between our overspending on defense and the declining state of education in this country, or a political environment where teachers are castigated regularly while it is anathema to even discuss defense cuts.
+1
+1
I think that Dekalb (and the state of Georgia for that matter) should release non-violent drug ‘offenders’ and push them towards rehab. The county and state would be saving about $38,000 to $40,000 per prisoner per year by not having to house and feed them. That way, more money could be put towards schools and teacher salaries and drug abusers could get some kind of actual help for their problem.
See my comment above. We’re not talking about drug offenders vs, education here. I believe DM proposed a very clear topic of debate.
Ah, sorry for being so snippy, El Jo. Please accept my apologies.
I misconstrued the point of your post. Shame on me for assuming snarkiness where none exists. I’ll just slink back to my cave of conspiracy and darkness now…
When it comes to fundraising for schools, something which many of us have been doing tirelessly for CSD for years, there’s a spectrum. 4/5 Academy families have fundraisers to support the Tybee Island class trip and make sure that all students can attend regardless of family ability to pay the cost of the bus and overnight stay–$5,000? $8,000? The DHS/RMS Booster Club raises something like $30,000 per year to fund most of the cost of CSD Athletics (other than the infrastructure and coach salaries which is much, much more!). The student publications sell ads to fund the printing costs. Etc, etc. etc. Ads on a marquee are somewhere on that spectrum. I don’t where I would draw the line but selling illegal drugs goes too far and doing nothing is not an option these days.
Branding? I used to hate the idea but now I’m used to it as a way to get funds in this era of private sector beats public. Turner Field. Whatever. Just make sure it’s something we can all get behind. I wouldn’t suggest Walmart or Dollar General.
Turner Field is named after Ted Turner, former Braves owner. The naming rights were not sold.
Philips Arena would be a better example.
ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present to you the Decatur High School graduating class of 2012, brought to by The Brick Store Pub, “Tomorrow’s drinkers begin today.”
I liiiiike it!
Too late –check out the scoreboard in the DHS gym–brought to you by Cornerstone Bank.
I don’t have a problem with that. Athletics are optional. It would be a stretch to imagine a bank advertisement/endorsement being in conflict with the school.
Heck yeah. Sell it. No issues here.
No worries about conflict of interests?
Would you put any limitations in place? Like what if a school system became reliant on ad funding for something its residents expected and then a big advertiser applied for a contract with the school – for like landscaping services or something?
The point of advertising is to create business. If the landscaper did not get the contract, your assumption is that he would pull his advertising. But if the advertisement was bringing in money, pulling it would not be in the best interest of his company. Good business people would not harm their business out of spite.
Interesting. What if it’s good business to get in a school’s good graces and win the landscaping contract? And after you don’t get it, you don’t pull the ad out of spite, but because it’s not influencing decision-making like you thought. Isn’t that “good business” too?
Possibly, but I think that’s quite a stretch. Plus, most ads run for a set amount of time anyway. So, the landscaper would have to breach his contract to pull it and the school should be ready to replace that ad at the end of the contract term regardless.
The Walrus had good responses to your example, so there’s little for me to add. No, I don’t see any conflicts of interest. And advertising at schools is not new. As an example, I’ve seen any number of school sports fields with local business advertising on the fence line. Also, I remember having paper book covers on my textbooks that were full of advertising. Finally, what about candy/popcorn/gift wrap sales? Students do this all the time to raise money for their school, and many of them have business logos and names on them (anyone remember World’s Finest Chocolate? Yum).
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/
First, I would like to thank all of our local business owners for supporting Decatur High School and Renfroe Middle School athletic programs. Our student athletes DO NOT pay to play a sport. Our teams don’t always have the best equipment or the best uniforms like many other schools, but our kids play with heart. So, without the support of our local business owners, many of our students would not be able to participate in high school sports.
Second, athletics can and does play a huge part in the academic success of our student athletes. Sports builds self-esteem, discipline, team work and dedication which carries over to the classroom. Sports has opened the door to college for many of our DHS graduates.
Yes we should sell scoreboard ads/marquee ads as long as it generates revenue for our schools and helps our local businesses generate new business.
Not only do our new athletic facilities create student pride they also allow DHS to host volleyball, lacrosse and basketball tournaments. In February DHS will host the regional boys basketball tournament. These tournaments bring in hundreds of people who eat and shop at our local businesses. It’s a win win for everyone!
Fundraising to support specific programs or events = Fine by me.
Fundraising to supplement general operations = Slightly uncomfortable with this, the implication being that budget cuts can be mitigated by bake sales.
Selling ad space / corporate sponsorships = It’s too bad we can’t imbed images in our posts, because the “Oscar Mayer Periodic Table” from the Simpsons seems quite appropriate. Anyone know the atomic weight of Bolonium?
This would be a great theme for a student comedy team or publication. AP Chemistry brought to you by Dupont, Spanish brought to you by Old El Paso, AP World History brought to you by the Tea Party.
And there’s my real-life favorite, the Smithsonian’s Orkin Insect Zoo.
Wow, why do I even try to be funny when real life is already so absurd?
Here you go. But the image isn’t high-res enough to pick out Bo’s atomic number.
At first I thought it sounded great and have often wondered why more colleges don’t do it. European sports go much further into all of this, for example. European football clubs earn tens of million in ads that go on the front of the shirt. And that, of course, is where it gets problematic. Before last season, Manchester United wore “AIG” on their shirts.
Maybe the fact that this would be for the funding of a public good and not a for-profit endeavor would make it more palatable. But if advertizing started, and I truly hope I am wrong, my sense is that it would start to matter too much. Even the Amazon/BN example could get controversial, say, if one of them were caught doing something unethical or illegal. And for the Brick Store, why not? Many of us support the place, go there, drink booze there, and even go and drink booze there with our kids. If the BS were disallowed because of alcohol, would that also disallow every other restaurant that serves alcohol? Where is the line?
So, at long last, my objection would be on practical and not idealogical grounds. If there were no disputes, no problem. So maybe a limited pilot program could test the waters. I certainly don’t want to see aany school function in Decatur targeted by an over-zealous minority over this. I’m not sure that $50,000, which sounded like an “up to” amount, is worth it especially relative to the many millions that school systems spends on education. I think CSD and the parent-teacher involvement we have going does pretty well without it.
Yeah, I think we should hold out for more. At $50,000, I feel a little squeamish about the Renfroe Playboy Gymnasium. At $5 million, we could add back the middle school cheerleading squad and freshman teams, add intramural sports so all students can play on a team not just the top athletes, abolish admission to sporting events, and put bunny ears on all the uniforms. (Just kidding.)
I gotcha. “HA” is what we say when reading the futures concocted by writers like Orwell or Atwood or Neal Stephenson (if I may tie this thread into the DBF). But we say “oops” when we look back. Everyone’s got a price. Mine is actually pretty low.
MU now wears jerseys with “AON” on the front. Which of course stands for “Americans Out Now”.
#COYS
Mancs not likin the yanks, even though the Glazers have helped them win the lot! Some bloaks just can’t be happy unless they’re not happy.
Spurs fan talking? You’ll have to speak louder, it’s hard to hear you from all the way down there at the bottom of the table. 0-3, 1-5, zero points. Ouch!
we’d be happy to take Bale off your hands. it’s only a matter of time anyway
I’m Cobb-o-phobic. The argument that Cobb does something is usually enough of a reason NOT to do it, in my book.
Am I the only one for whom the biggest distinction is inside the school (where primary target audience is students) versus outside the school? The idea of putting commercial advertising inside the school library makes my skin crawl, I don’t care who the merchant is. Outside on the marquee is different — personally, I have a reflexive resistance to it, but am trying to think about it logically and how it compares (or doesn’t) with selling ads for the yearbook, football program, student literary magazine (that has ads, right?), and around the athletic fields. (We have that last item, right? We did when I was coming up, in another town — mini billboards on the fence that enclosed the track around the football field.)
Another factor that I can’t get comfortable with: who gets to decide which merchants are appropriate/acceptable and which are not? And what specific commercial messages are/are not appropriate?
On the other hand, if we’re not talking about specific ad messages, but simply identifying individual businesses/organizations that contribute financial support, then why not a separate marquee for that specific purpose? Would it be desirable/appropriate for DEF to spearhead and/or serve as the conduit?
Never mind about Cobb County. (In this instance, and just in general.)
I’m thinking we don’t want to go there. Braves games are kind of annoying now because of the constant advertising between innings. I don’t want our schools to be like Turner Field…Homeroom, brought to you by Starbucks Coffee!
Our school (not CSD) has regular Menchie’s nights, Twisted Taco nights, etc, where restaurants donate a portion of their night’s profits to help our school. The students get stickers in school to remind parents of these events.
Since I’ve been a teacher (18 years), every school I’ve been at has had business partners that donate items or money. Because these businesses are supporting us, we support them by placing their names in newsletters. I don’t really see the problem. That money has been used for all kind of programs. I’ve always worked in elementary schools, so we didn’t have athletics, but we might have supported our PE department with some of that business partner money. I think it’s a great way to raise money for things that otherwise can’t be funded in a school that focuses its other money on instruction.
Yearbooks and sporting events are artifacts of consumer cycles, so even while they happen at school, they are not inherently part of our ideological commitment to provide public education for our citizens. I would be concerned about anything that lends an air of “for-profit” or consumerism to that ideal.
I don’t like the idea of having major corporate advertising in the schools, particularly inside the schools, but I suppose there is a certain amount I would be willing to put up with if the price was right. Some very specific limitations and guidelines would have to be put in place, though.
What I *don’t* like are the various items that young school children are asked to sell (read: parents of young school children are asked to sell.) That includes magazines, gift wrap, cookies, etc. I realize it brings in needed revenue, but I find asking kids to sell stuff to support their own education reprehensible. Feeling pressured to sell stuff for the school is one of my worst childhood memories…I hated it. In my experience, kids – including myself – were made to feel like non-team players for not being able to meet the sales quotas.
Perhaps “quotas” is a strong word, because there wasn’t actually a quota. But there was an expectation of a minimum amount of sales per child.
I remember when our kid was at the Glennwood Academy and they used to do that gawd-fersakin’ sales program (What the hell was it, wrapping paper or something?). The first year was a nightmare but the second year they announced a new option where you could opt out but still support the school by just writing them a check.
Happiest check I ever wrote.
By the way, if anyone on this blog needs wrapping paper or trimmings, I have an 18 year supply! I’m especially overstocked in contemporary themes that are no longer popular.
+1. I couldn’t agree more. I would rather 100% of my green go to the cause. I don’t need more unnecessary stuff cluttering up my life.
Such advertising might require a change to the City sign ordinance (from Municode Online, Section 78-19, Permitted Signs):
Public buildings, parks, schools, cemeteries, and other public uses, private and parochial elementary and secondary schools, hospitals, churches and other places of worship. Signs for public buildings, parks, schools, cemeteries, and other public uses, private and parochial elementary and secondary schools, hospitals, churches and other places of worship shall be limited to the following:
(1) One permanent freestanding sign or one permanent wall sign mounted on and parallel to the surface of the building, not exceeding 24 square feet in area;
(2) One permanent bulletin board, including changeable copy panel, not exceeding 24 square feet in area; and
(3) One temporary sign not exceeding 24 square feet in area announcing a special event.