| WASHINGTON
- June 12 - Commercial Alert announced today that the Seattle School Board won
the National Ad Slam Contest, which awards a $5,000 prize to a school or school
district for the best and most creative effort to expel advertising and commercialism
from school during the 2001-2 school year.
The prize honors the work of the
Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools, which led the effort against commercialism
in the Seattle public schools.
Last November, in response to Citizens'
Campaign organizing and advocacy, the Seattle School Board set a new policy on
advertising and commercial activities that will remove Channel One, a televised
in-school marketing program, from all Seattle public schools by the 2004-5 school
year. The new policy also prohibits advertising on school property (with exceptions
for school newspapers, yearbooks and library materials) and restricts the display
of corporate logos.
"The award goes to the citizen
heroes at the Citizens' Campaign for protecting captive audiences of impressionable
schoolchildren from the marketing of junk food, violent entertainment, soda pop
and video games," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert.
"They are making sure that Seattle schoolchildren are not for sale."
"The Seattle victory shows that
a broad-based coalition of parents, youth, teachers, workers, elected officials
and community leaders can successfully fight the corporatization of public schools,"
said Brita Butler-Wall, executive director of the Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free
Schools.
"I'm thrilled about the collaboration
between the Seattle School District and the Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free
Schools that resulted in a policy protecting our students from inappropriate commercial
activity," said Nancy Waldman, president of the Seattle School Board.
"This award is really about
health," said Gary Goldbaum, MD, MPH, Chronic Disease & Injury Control
Officer, Public Health - Seattle & King County. "Through its commitment
to providing a healthier environment, Seattle Public Schools is promoting not
only a better learning environment, but also a healthier population of young people
who will be healthier citizens."
The National Ad Slam Contest is endorsed
by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, Adbusters Media
Foundation, Bioneers, Center for a New American Dream, Center for Media &
Democracy, Center for Media Education, Center for Science in the Public Interest,
Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools, Citizens for Media Literacy, Commercialism
in Education Research Unit, Consumers Union, Junkbusters, The Motherhood Project
of the Institute for American Values, Mothering Magazine, New Mexico Media Literacy
Project, Obligation, Organic Consumers Association, Public Citizen, Seeds of Simplicity
and the TV-Turnoff Network.
Commercial Alert's mission is
to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from
exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental
integrity and democracy. For more information about advertising, marketing and
commercialism in schools, see Commercial Alert's website is at <http://www.commercialalert.org>.
The Citizens Campaign for Commercial-Free
Schools is a Seattle-based non-profit organization devoted to protecting Washington
children and youth from commercialism in school. Their website is at <http://www.scn.org/cccs/>.
<-------->
Following is an article in yesterday's
Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the National Ad Slam Contest.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/74121_slam11.shtml
Schools getting $5,000 for switching
off the ads
by Kathy Mulady
An anti-commercialism group in Oregon
will award the Seattle School Board $5,000 for tuning out Channel One and dumping
other in-school advertising.
Last November, board members voted
to phase out Channel One, a 12-minute, daily school news program that includes
two minutes of advertising. The board also adopted a policy aimed to remove blatant
advertising from soft drink machines, sports fields, gyms and school buses.
The award will be presented to school
board members tomorrow by Commercial Alert. It is the first award to be given
by the Portland-based group, which was organized in part to fight advertising
in public schools. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is chairman of its board of directors.
Channel One, which reaches about
8 million students, is one of the organization's main targets.
"We view Channel One as the
most egregious form of in-school commercialism in the country," said Gary
Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert. "Corporations see the gold
and are sprinting into the schools to try to market to these students. Kids are
in school to learn, not to shop."
Channel One, which has been used
in some Seattle public schools since 1991, is shown in classrooms in about half
the district's high schools and middle schools. It offers about 10 minutes of
news and current-events programming and two minutes of commercials. In exchange,
the schools receive free televisions, VCRs and cable connections.
Schools will phase out the Channel
One program, ending it in 2004.
Nancy Waldman, president of the school
board, said she doesn't know if the schools will be asked to return the equipment.
However, the board is planning a levy in 2004 to replace some that is expected
to be lost.
The school board hasn't decided what
it will do with the $5,000.
Board member Dick Lilly wasn't on
the board when the anti-advertising plan was approved, but supports the no-ads
policy.
"The district made a huge mistake
when they first allowed it," he said. "It dilutes the curriculum. That's
what's pernicious about it."
Commercial Alert says the school
news program is fraught with commercials for "junk food, overpriced sneakers
and video games."
But Channel One describes the advertisements
as mainly for skin cleanser, clothes, military recruiting and anti-drug messages.
"We have tremendous support
among educators; 12,000 schools nationwide have renewed their contract with us
in the last three years," said Jeff Ballabon, a spokesman for Primedia, the
parent company of Channel One.
Waldman said she was initially skeptical
about the need to remove advertising from schools, viewing it more as an opportunity
to teach students to be savvy, wary consumers.
Parents' groups and especially the
Citizens Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools, which nominated the school board
for the award, convinced her otherwise.
"The more I thought about it,
the more I realized that people entrust their kids to us. Corporations making
money on a captive audience is morally wrong," Waldman said. "School
should be a safe haven from advertising for these kids."
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