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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commerce... and Other Scholastic Satires
Jun 08, 2011
Scholastic, the nation's largest purveyor of school-based book clubs and book fairs, bills itself as the "most trusted name in learning."
But lately the company has come under fire for its "InSchool Marketing" division -- a program that cashes-in on this trusted name by allowing corporations to create teaching materials designed to further "client interests," and create "brand awareness" and "consumer loyalty." The program has been used to promote everything in classrooms from ice cream to television programming to sugary beverages to the world's dirtiest form of energy.
Esteemed opinion-makers including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times editorial boards recently slammed Scholastic for selling out, spurred by the company's now-defunct partnership with The American Coal Foundation.
But the most succinct statement of outrage comes, of course, from the Twitterverse.
Last week, @Scholastic4Sale -- with its proclaimed mission to help "underserved corporations reach children's classrooms" -- began a satiric skewering of Scholastic with series of mashups of classic Scholastic book covers combined with real InSchool Marketing partners (see slideshow here).
Titles included Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commerce, The Polar Express, Powered by The American Coal Foundation, and Green Eggs and SunnyD. As one account follower put it: "Sometimes a joke is worth a thousand-word editorial."
The mashups and account are the brainchild of a supporter of our campaign. On Thursday, Twitter suspended her account after someone (I wonder who?!) complained that it violated the site's trademark policy, which states that a company or business name cannot be used "in a manner that may mislead or confuse others." She later added a disclaimer, and now the account is back up and running.
So if the trademark police are watching, let me be clear that the images you're about to see are parodies. Unfortunately, however, Scholastic's InSchool Marketing division is no joke.
After a PR nightmare in May around The American Coal Foundation partnership, Scholastic vowed to review its policies and procedures on all sponsored classroom materials. More than 50,000 people have now signed the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood's petition on Change.org urging the publisher to shelve the InSchool Marketing program entirely.
Check out the slideshow of @Scholastic4Sale's handiwork, and then tell Scholastic to stop using its privileged position to serve as Trojan horse for inappropriate marketing.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Josh Golin
Josh Golin is the executive director of Fairplay, an organization dedicated to protecting kids from the exploitative practices of Big Tech.
Scholastic, the nation's largest purveyor of school-based book clubs and book fairs, bills itself as the "most trusted name in learning."
But lately the company has come under fire for its "InSchool Marketing" division -- a program that cashes-in on this trusted name by allowing corporations to create teaching materials designed to further "client interests," and create "brand awareness" and "consumer loyalty." The program has been used to promote everything in classrooms from ice cream to television programming to sugary beverages to the world's dirtiest form of energy.
Esteemed opinion-makers including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times editorial boards recently slammed Scholastic for selling out, spurred by the company's now-defunct partnership with The American Coal Foundation.
But the most succinct statement of outrage comes, of course, from the Twitterverse.
Last week, @Scholastic4Sale -- with its proclaimed mission to help "underserved corporations reach children's classrooms" -- began a satiric skewering of Scholastic with series of mashups of classic Scholastic book covers combined with real InSchool Marketing partners (see slideshow here).
Titles included Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commerce, The Polar Express, Powered by The American Coal Foundation, and Green Eggs and SunnyD. As one account follower put it: "Sometimes a joke is worth a thousand-word editorial."
The mashups and account are the brainchild of a supporter of our campaign. On Thursday, Twitter suspended her account after someone (I wonder who?!) complained that it violated the site's trademark policy, which states that a company or business name cannot be used "in a manner that may mislead or confuse others." She later added a disclaimer, and now the account is back up and running.
So if the trademark police are watching, let me be clear that the images you're about to see are parodies. Unfortunately, however, Scholastic's InSchool Marketing division is no joke.
After a PR nightmare in May around The American Coal Foundation partnership, Scholastic vowed to review its policies and procedures on all sponsored classroom materials. More than 50,000 people have now signed the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood's petition on Change.org urging the publisher to shelve the InSchool Marketing program entirely.
Check out the slideshow of @Scholastic4Sale's handiwork, and then tell Scholastic to stop using its privileged position to serve as Trojan horse for inappropriate marketing.
Josh Golin
Josh Golin is the executive director of Fairplay, an organization dedicated to protecting kids from the exploitative practices of Big Tech.
Scholastic, the nation's largest purveyor of school-based book clubs and book fairs, bills itself as the "most trusted name in learning."
But lately the company has come under fire for its "InSchool Marketing" division -- a program that cashes-in on this trusted name by allowing corporations to create teaching materials designed to further "client interests," and create "brand awareness" and "consumer loyalty." The program has been used to promote everything in classrooms from ice cream to television programming to sugary beverages to the world's dirtiest form of energy.
Esteemed opinion-makers including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times editorial boards recently slammed Scholastic for selling out, spurred by the company's now-defunct partnership with The American Coal Foundation.
But the most succinct statement of outrage comes, of course, from the Twitterverse.
Last week, @Scholastic4Sale -- with its proclaimed mission to help "underserved corporations reach children's classrooms" -- began a satiric skewering of Scholastic with series of mashups of classic Scholastic book covers combined with real InSchool Marketing partners (see slideshow here).
Titles included Harry Potter and the Chamber of Commerce, The Polar Express, Powered by The American Coal Foundation, and Green Eggs and SunnyD. As one account follower put it: "Sometimes a joke is worth a thousand-word editorial."
The mashups and account are the brainchild of a supporter of our campaign. On Thursday, Twitter suspended her account after someone (I wonder who?!) complained that it violated the site's trademark policy, which states that a company or business name cannot be used "in a manner that may mislead or confuse others." She later added a disclaimer, and now the account is back up and running.
So if the trademark police are watching, let me be clear that the images you're about to see are parodies. Unfortunately, however, Scholastic's InSchool Marketing division is no joke.
After a PR nightmare in May around The American Coal Foundation partnership, Scholastic vowed to review its policies and procedures on all sponsored classroom materials. More than 50,000 people have now signed the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood's petition on Change.org urging the publisher to shelve the InSchool Marketing program entirely.
Check out the slideshow of @Scholastic4Sale's handiwork, and then tell Scholastic to stop using its privileged position to serve as Trojan horse for inappropriate marketing.
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