It’s the middle of the school year. You get the kids ready and watch from the window as they walk off to catch the bus. The big, yellow bus rolls down the street and comes to a stop at the end of your cove.
Well, it’s not entirely yellow. A big blue ad for First Local Bank adorns its side.
Maybe it sounds odd, but the scenario is real. With recent budget stresses on school systems, already half a dozen states have begun testing and using school bus advertising. Do you live in Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee or Texas? Then maybe you’ve seen some of these.
Now, I live in Tennessee (obviously, as Harvest is located in the great city of Memphis), but I’ve yet to see any buses advertising banks or breakfast cereals. But it wouldn’t surprise if I did, and it doesn’t surprise that it is happening.
How long have city buses been covered in ads? When was the last time you went to a school fundraising event, like a bake sale or 5k run? Did you get a t-shirt for the event? Was the back of it plastered with local business logos? Yes, it was, because that event was expensive, and the school paid for it with advertising money.
And apparently, operating a school is really expensive, too.
But what are these states doing with the ad money? Well, Texas, who has adopted the practice in several of its school districts, is using the money to cover staffing costs, as well as, to update their school buses with new safety features, including seat belts.
Is it worth it?
Advertising brings in a lot of money. Ask NBC or ABC how they cover most their expenses. Could that same source of revenue be used to balance school budgets and even provide equipment and resources that school’s couldn’t otherwise attain? Does your child’s school need a new computer lab? That’s not cheap, but what if a few months of school bus advertising could pay for it all—and new office chairs?
Where does the advertising stop, though? That seems to be the biggest concern. Will the day come when Nike sponsors and provides the curriculum for Physical Education classes? Will advertisers have a voice in what schools can teach?
I’m not sure how I feel about the whole thing. Advertising can be a very powerful force, but is that a force I want in my public systems? Politicians can now be sponsored, so to speak. Are schools next? Can advertising be used just as a revenue tool and not a wave of influence?
I don’t know. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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That’s a tough one to answer. Generating money for schools is fantastic, but is it opening a door that we don’t want opened. My initial thought is that the positives outweigh the negatives. That is, if they set hard boundaries for who can advertise, content of advertising and limit the ad packages strictly to bus placement.
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