Schoolhouse Commercialism Leaves Policymakers Behind--The Sixteenth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercializing Trends: 2012-2013

There is a lot of money to be made from marketing to children. Children make spending decisions about their own cash, they influence their parents' spending decisions--and they have their whole purchasing lives ahead of them. For these reasons, marketers have, over the years, done everything they can to create a "360-degree" marketing environment that engages with young people over and over, wherever they are and whatever they are doing: browsing cyberspace, watching television, engaging in an offline activity, or going to school. Since 1998, these reports have examined trends in schoolhouse commercialism in the context of general marketing trends. The reports organize school commercialism into seven categories: (1) appropriation of space on school property; (2) exclusive agreements; (3) sponsored programs and activities; (4) digital marketing; (5) incentive programs; (6) sponsorship of supplementary educational materials; and (7) fundraising. While the primary interest was assessing the legislative landscape relative to school commercialism, the authors also consulted a number of non-legislative information sources. They sought information on innovations in marketing, on how school policymakers described school marketing arrangements, and on the positions of various education and non-education policy organizations toward school commercialism. Notwithstanding the positive development of the FTC's rule changes, marketers continue to target children via their computers and mobile devices. In the education world, in particular, this targeting was eclipsed in 2012-2013 by the privacy controversy generated by corporate access to student educational data. In the 2011-2012 report , it was recommended that policymakers prohibit advertising in schools unless an independent, disinterested entity can clearly demonstrate that a proposed commercializing activity will cause no harm to children or otherwise undermine the quality of their education. The authors stand by that recommendation. The following are appended: (1) Initial Search Terms: Legislative Databases; (2) Websites Associated with Relevant Topics; (3) Search Terms: Internet Searches; (4) Interview Documentation and Protocol; (5) State Laws and Regulations as of May 2004; and (6) Bills Addressing School Commercialism Introduced and Signed in 2012-2013. A list of notes and references is included. [For "Promoting Consumption at School. Health Threats Associated with School House Commercialism--The Fifteenth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercializing Trends: 2011-2012," see ED544262.]