Marketing in Schools

Marketing in Schools
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Different companies advertise their products to schools on different platforms such as buses, scoreboards, lunchrooms and Channel One in middle and high school classrooms (Molnar, 2003). Other companies engage in indirect advertising by sponsoring certain school consumables and activities. Placing advertisements in schools communicate that teachers, schools and parents endorse the displayed products (Hartman, DesJardins, & MacDonald, 2014). Marketers exploit children because they are generally less able to resist the influence of advertisements and the fact that schools may seem to endorse the products by allowing their display in schools. Children lack market information that adults have and cannot enter into commercial contacts freely (Molnar, 2003). Advertising should therefore be age appropriate and it should be reserved for those above thirteen years as they are able to make better judgment in their buying decisions than pre-teen children.
Schools would be affected by the decision to limit advertising on classrooms and areas that only teenagers frequent rather than allowing advertising that targets all school age groups. This is because the schools would lose an opportunity for paid advertising. This would prevent their opportunity to supplement their funding because the recession has resulted in minimal federal education funding. Students would also miss out on advertising revenue sponsored field trips, sports and other after school programs (Azuz, 2009). Advertisers would also miss out on an opportunity to increase their product visibility and cash in on a lucrative market composed of easily gullible children.
Schools stand to benefit from allowing advertisers to market their products to students. For instance Channel One launched its advertisements targeting grades six to twelve in different school districts in exchange for several telecommunication gadgets ...