Words: 809
As buyers themselves 2) As influencer of their parents purchases, and 3) As a future adult customer. Every year, children have an estimated $15 billion of their own money, of which they spend $11 billion of it on products such as toys, clothes, candy and snacks. Children also influence at least $1 60 billion in parental purchases. Generally speaking, today’s children have more money to spend than ever before. Companies know this and find that advertising to the ‘youth of the nation’ can be beneficial and lead to future dedicated customers.
Because of the increase in children’s spending power in recent decades, advertisers have closely targeted children as consumers. New advertising strategies aimed at children have been steadily growing and expanding. The toy-related program, or program length commercial (which is just like a infomercial) is developed to sell toys, and stirred public attention and debates. Along with this form of advertising, 900-number telephone services were accused of being aimed at children.
In the 1 ass’s, children got their own TV networks, radio networks, magazines, newspapers, kids’ clothing brands, and other high-price items such as video games and other high-tech products. Other new advertising strategies include ids’ clubs, store displays directed at children, direct mailing to children, and sponsored school activities. At first glance, selling corporate sponsorship rights to pay for school activities looks like a win-win situation. Needy schools get resources they need. Companies get new marketing opportunities that can build brand loyalty.
After all, advertising in schools is nothing new. Districts have long used ads from local businesses to help pay the costs Of school newspapers, yearbooks, and athletic programs. Even here at CUB our athletic department sells ads for ‘Sports Media Guides’ to local institutions as well as national organizations. A growing number of companies are offering schools money for a chance to market their products directly to students. As budgets shrink, schools must find ways to get extra funding. Many schools are doing away with fund-raising and have begun to look at corporate dollars to fund just about everything.
Signing contracts with these companies seems like an easy way to get the money they need. Schools need funding for in-school activities and equipment, and, in order to reduce the number of children going home to empty houses, they need to fund many after-school activities. Product advertisements can be found almost everywhere in schools. They are most frequently found in stadiums, gymnasiums, school cafeterias, hallways, and on textbook covers. Some schools across the nation are even putting advertisements on school buses. So what types of advertising are out there in our schools?
There are different categories that ads can fall into. The following categories can represent most the advertising techniques used in Our schools today and give a description Of how they work. Types of Advertising 1) In-school advertisements In-school ads are forms of advertising that can be found on billboards, on school buses, on scoreboards, in school hallways, in soft drink machines, or n sports uniforms. This type of advertising is also found in product coupons and in give-sways that are given to students. 2) “Exclusive rights” contracts A company gives money to schools that carry ONLY their products.
Extra money can also be given if a schools’ sales exceed a certain amount(quota). 3) Corporate-sponsored educational materials and programs Sponsored educational materials include free or low-cost items which can be used for instruction. Examples of these may include; multimedia teaching kits, videotapes, software, books, posters, activity sheets, and workbooks. While mom of these materials may be ad-free, others may contain advertising for the producer of the item, or they may contain biased information aimed at swaying students towards a company’s product or service. ) Corporate-sponsored contests and incentive programs This is where students compete for prizes by selling, buying or collecting labels for a certain product. These contests and incentive programs bring brand names into the schools along with the promise of such rewards as free pizzas, cash, points towards buying educational equipment, or trips and other panes. 5) Ads in classroom materials and programs Ads in classroom materials include any commercial messages in magazines or video programming used in school. A perfect example of this type of advertising is “Channel One”.
Channel One is a 12-minute daily news show for students in grades 6 through 1 2 that includes two min tutees of age-appropriate ads for products like jeans and soft drinks. In exchange for airing the program each day at the same time for three years, Channel One gives schools a satellite dish, a cable hookup, a television monitor for each classroom, and an agreement to service the equipment for the three years. While some state school systems had originally said ‘No’ to Channel One, the company reports to be present in some 350,000 classrooms.