Product advertisements can be found almost everywhere in schools. They are frequently in stadiums, gymnasiums, school cafeterias, hallways, and on textbook covers. In Utah ads are even in some student restrooms. For example, in some communities, children use mathematics worksheets with Disney characters and when done see clips from the video. A nonprofit research group, The Milwaukee Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education, recently discovered that these corporate-sponsored classroom materials often subtly steer class lessons in directions advantageous to the sponsor.
School children are a lucrative market.
And teenagers age 17 and younger will make up the largest portion of the nation's population in coming years. Since designer labels and brand names play an important role in defining status and social acceptance to many youths, getting them to buy and then become loyal to a particular product at an early age can ensure companies a profitable future. Zillions, a magazine for young people from the creators of Consumer Reports, is one magazine that teaches children to become savvy consumers. Each month the magazine evaluates in an unbiased fashion several products that children might be interested in purchasing. If we increased children's critical awareness of the ways they are being targeted for commercial purposes, if we helped children identify the emotional appeals the advertisers try to make, and if we encouraged children to dissect the images and messages, this might help diffuse the effects of advertising.