Commodifying Culture - Schools Are A Marketer's Dream Venue

How can parents say no when the school says, "Do you want fries with that?"

In the article 'Schools Are a Marketer's Dream Venue', Paul Harrison emphasises his opposing views to the idea of commodification in schools. He specifically expresses how the advertising and sponsorship of commercial brands, businesses, and food companies such as McDonald's, are interfering with the behaviours and choices that are being made over the long term by children and young adolescents who are being exposed to the sponsorship of fast food and soft drink brands at schools.

By advertising in schools, brands and businesses are smartly increasing their sales, popularity and brand loyalty, primarily because they are appealing to large numbers of vulnerable children and adolescents. Marketing strategies such as sponsoring and funding for schools are seen as beneficial to the schools as corporations are funding to 'help out the schools' with literacy and numeracy programs that will in turn benefit the education of the nations youth. Because of this supreme funding, a cycle is formed where the schools become vulnerable and dependent on the sponsorship of these brands, and allow the brands to continue advertising in their schools, which then leads to bad choices made by the students.

Kenway and Bullen (2001) support this idea through their argument that "advertising is not only a key element of a market culture, it is also pivotal to the growth of such cultures". Thus, the more schools advertise, the more they become absorbed within a market culture and the more they have to advertise. A major problem is that the increasing amount of focus and school budgets has been diverted to advertising and away from educational matters.

"What starts out as a simple poster thanking the brand for their sponsorship, may lead to preference of that brand's products over others at the schools" - Paul Harrison.

The picture to the left is an example of McDonald's' interference in schools from Seminole County, Florida. The picture encourages the students to check their report card grades and then present their report card to a McDonald's Restaurant to claim a food prize. 

Because of the exposure and vulnerability of children and adolescents in schools, the defences made by parents to control aspects such as healthy eating are circumvented. A major issue is the idea of how parents are meant to productively educate their children on healthy living and eating, if their children are being exposed to McDonald's advertising every day in their school grounds.


It seems selfish of schools to be making the wrong decisions in regards to the behaviours and choices that are being made by their students due to the marketisation that is being allowed in their schools. The problem with this is that the schools become too reliant on the funding from businesses and corporations that they are promoting, and in turn they reap the benefits of the funding to make their schools look appealing through their own promotional activities. For example, Kenway and Bullen (2001) infer that schools are "seeking to promote themselves on the basis of their use of such technologies in their curriculum". Thus, schools re-shape their identities by purchasing up-to-date computers and technology, and then announce that this modern technology will assist and prepare their students for future employment opportunities.

In conclusion, it is clear that marketisation in schools provides benefits for the businesses and corporations that are being advertised, and also the schools themselves that receive funding and sponsorship in return. However the main concern is the behaviour and decisions that are being developed from all of this advertising, and the influence it has on young children and adolescents due to the mass persuasion that advertising seeks to gain. The emergence of this culture, where schools are becoming markets themselves, results in a shift from students being learners or school citizens, to instead being commodities that schools 'consume'.



References:

Paul Harrison: 'Schools Are a Marketer's Dream Venue', (2009)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/schools-are-a-marketers-dream-venue-20091021-h8xj.html

Kenway, J. & Bullen, E.: Consuming Children: Education-Advertising-Entertainment, (Open University Press, 2001). Chapter 5, p:121-150.

Image extracted from: http://www.adventuredad.com/archives/is-mcdonalds-sponsoring-your-childrens-grades/