>teaching kids to decode advertising
It seems to be pretty well covered here in the UK. My eleven year old has just finished a project on advertising and sits through TV adverts discussing what they are selling and the various messages. I think that children are far more media aware than my generation ever was (and we are a lot more aware than our parents).
It is the advertising pumped into school as facts that is insidious, the latest thing are the websites that offer homework help. Here's an example of a website touting for adverts:
http://www.jiskha.com/contact_jhh/advertise.html – you can apply for a Visa Card whilst learning about Anna Karenina. Children have always written to companies for information about products and manufacturing methods - I remember getting information about sugar production (talking of a product that is steeped in restrictive practices) when I was at school and the corporate website is the perfect way of providing free information. I think that there is some regulation here of what can be included but hard-pressed schools do find it hard to turn down practical support. Most of the schools that I have come across offer a pretty good balance to any of these influences. They are very strong on fashionable areas of ecology (the rain forest seems to be the most often repeated subject on the curriculum here) and issues of exploitation are also covered pretty well in subjects like geography under the headings of the "haves and the have nots".
I've heard a fair bit of discussion about bringing products and money-off vouchers into schools and it certainly happens, although I can't think of a school that I have ever come across letting McDonalds through the door with anything. I think I've seen things with Pizza Hut on them. Coca Cola
http://www.rif.org/partnership.html are involved with a reading programme
http://www.rif.org/partnership.html, although I've not come across it here. Here’s another view of that sponsorship
http://www.saveharry.com/.
There is a double-edged sword. We encourage companies to take their responsibility to the community seriously with Business in the Community, corporate giving and sponsorship schemes then complain about it and throw it back in their face when the offerings are less than squeaky clean. It is said that there is very little totally “clean” money. I have certainly come across the view, in the fundraising world that many of the great trust and foundations build on fortunes that were made in the past were made on the back of cheap labour.
So, whilst I would prefer that advertising was not wrapped up in teaching materials, I think that we should make children aware if the real world that they live in and arm them to deal with the bombardment of advertising that they will certainly face.
