White Spot, a popular BC restaurant chain solicits hamburger concepts
from third and fourth grade students and one of their ideas becomes a
feature on the kids' menu. Home Depot donates playground equipment to an
elementary school, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony culminates in a
community swathed in corporate swag, temporary tattoos, and a new "Home
Depot song" written by a teacher and sung by the children. Kindergarten
students return home with a school district-prescribed dental hygiene
flyer featuring a maze leading to a tube of Crest toothpaste. Schools
receive five cents for each flyer handed to a student.
While commercialism has existed in our schools for over a century, the
corporate invasion of our schools reached unprecedented heights in
the1990s and 2000s after two decades of federal funding cuts and an
increasing tendency to apply business models to the education system.
Constant cutbacks have left school trustees, administrators, teachers,
and parents with difficult decisions about how to finance programs and
support students. Meanwhile, studies on the impact of advertising and
consumer culture on children make clear that the effects are harmful
both to the individual child and the broader culture. Captive Audience
explores this compelling history of branding the classroom in Canada.
