Prilosec? On a school bus? Really?

It's sad but what can you say? If schools and teachers were properly funded we wouldn't have to whore out the minds of children to pay for school.

"For its part, SAC promises the ads will be age-appropriate, promote a healthy and productive life, and are directly approved by district appointed personnel."

Coming under a picture of an ad of Coke and Cool Pops... gotta love that sugar.

YAY! Now the teachers supply budgets can be increased by a whole buck! That is, per grade level, of course.

People might complain about this, but in reality its a indicator of where our priorities are in this country. They aren't putting ads up in buses because they are corporate shills. It's because they don't have money. With schools now pulling soda out of cafeterias, they have to compensate for that revenue somewhere else.

If you don't like the ads, then attack the actual problem not the symptom. Get more money to schools.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with this if the ads were on the outside, pitching the general public, instead of the kids inside the bus.

LOL! Oh mannnnnnN! Prilosec & junk food! LOL!

This just screams inappropriate & hilarious!

Where is that picture from? It looks like the inside of a school bus (note the yellow exterior), and I noticed a "Six Flags Great America" ad, which indicates Suburban Chicago. Is someone in my neck of the woods already doing this? Or is it a photoshop job?

That's a beautiful photograph of a not-so-beautiful idea.

photochop?

Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. And as proved by the local Bus Radio discussions here in Denver parents and educators simply don't give a shit - and our more concerned with people "rocking the boat" and giving their school districts a bad name.

[www.futuregringo.com]

The only saving grace is that young people are smart and savvy at creep, guerilla marketing, and selective about what they consume. They aren't stupid. But I still find it perverse.

Abercrombie butt crack boys get taken down, but this goes up? Christ...

Drug advertisements? Okay whats next? Its a good idea but only $2,100 per bus? For all those adds? talk about cheap advertising. Where is the McDonalds double cheeseburger for $1.00 ad?

watch net it will be movies on the inside and Outside of the busses

Yeah, Photoshop. Plain old innocent school bus interior from Getty images.

Also there must be students bright enough to realize this bullshit is wrong. Let's hope they engage in a little civil disobedience and rip these down... They have my support.

Our country seems to be taking backwards steps. The fact that we have trillions of dollars for war but school districts can't find the money to give children a proper education says a lot about the United States.

Of course I don't blame just the government for not giving education enough money. I remember when I was in school we were rationing paper and supplies (e.g. any test the teachers gave you had to write on your own paper then give the test back because the school couldn't afford for every student to have a copy), but at the same time they were putting a lot of work into making the football and baseball stadiums top of the line.

The problem seems to start at the top with not enough money being allocated for schools, then the money gets sucked up by beaurocrats before it reaches the teachers and students. Plus you also have the issues of schools only really doing things to look good to parents (e.g. zero tolerance policies), and a lot of other problems that are too long to list in these comments.

I hope our education system gets back on track sometime soon.

Meh. Whatever is needed so that my property taxes don't keep going up. Make them wear headphones and have them listen to the Peptobismol song on the way to school.

Since this is in South Carolina let's put up the following ads to really piss off the people there

For the evangelical right wing:
Trojan Condoms
Planned Parenthood

And if you wanted to piss off the left:
Fox News - You could make it "Fair and UnBalanced" by putting all the fat kids on one side of the bus.
US Army/Navy/Marines Recruiting

And to just get everyone mad:
Pay-day loan vendor
Wal-Mart

Any other suggestions?

Instead of prilosec, the pharma companies should probably be pushing their new Hannah Montana blood sugar monitors. It's one thing for schools to accept ad revenue from companies like Sylvan Learning Center and Kaplan, but this is pretty repugnant.

They wound up pulling a lot of the soda machines out because as it turns out, Coke takes a much bigger chunk of the change and the schools make far less than they were led on to believe. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens here. They'll wind up paying the schools for placement and then charging all kinds of hidden maintenance fees.

I would expect nothing less from a consumption based society...

Next up, schools should (will) sell naming rights to corporations. Coke High will play their crosstown rivals Pepsi Academy. It'll bring new levels of reality to the "cola wars".

THE PHOTO IS A JOKE. A joke people, that's not really what's going to be advertised. And really, kids see so many ads everywhere else I can't imagine this is a big deal.

Just what I need, another space for McDonalds to advertise to my children. Like I don't hear I want to go to McDonalds enough as it is.

I can't imaging my knucklehead riding a bus and taking the time to read these things. Unless they are physically attached to a girl, he probably won't notice.

At 13, he doesn't do much of our household shopping; this is advertising to the wrong market and I imagine it won't be long until these ads show up on the commuter bus I ride to and from work every day.

Isn't the lottery supposed to be the saving grace for public schools

$2100/bus-month... that suggests the ad company is promising somewhat more than $2100/bus-month in revenue to the advertisers.

Consumers tapped out? Start early with the kiddies -- and the great thing is that this approach, exposure is damn near impossible for a parent to control! woohoo! Pure Genius!

Purely obscene. Repulsive, contemptable and disgusting.

This is also exemplary of what happens when people [South Carolina Board of Ed.] think too much. Seriously. What, is the SCBoE composed of Reagan-Era MBA's? sounds like.

oh well...

I don't really have a problem with this other then the fact it shows how the schools need more money. I kinda agree with what someone elce said about putting the ads on the outside of the bus. Makes sence.

what's next? ads on the back & inside textbooks? On & inside lockers? On sports equipment (jerseys & helmets)? On food trays & lunchtables? On school uniforms? Bordering chalkboards?

Ugh!

This is just going to be a fun canvas for vandalism.

@jamesdenver: Kids can be bright but that doesnt mean they wont be sheep.
Fact is people like to be told what to do, what to eat, what to drink, and how to be cool.

That's... a decent amount of money. My high school had seven or eight busses; that's $16,000 a month. Enough for an extra teacher or two? For the school musical? For a class on consumer rights?

(For paying off the "hey guys, we're missing $14 million" problem my school district had?)

I would imagine that the adds would do much better on the outside of the bus.

As long as the adds were actually for good/educational/activity type things like a museum, a bike/skate board/sports equipment company, milk, or even a sporting goods store or the discovery channels I don't have a big problem.

@apronk: was thinking the same thing

The only ad missing there is one for cigarettes.

What's the point? Any adverts are going to be drawn on and covered in spitballs and god only knows what else by the end of the first day. It'd be somewhat less bad if they were using the revenue to, oh I dunno, maybe install some seatbelts?

If the money goes to books, computers, and classes that have a more functional purpose than "making a well rounded person", I really don't see a problem with it.

FRY: That's awful. It's like brainwashing.

LEELA: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?

FRY: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written in the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!

Mrs. Krabapple - "Seymour, you're penny pinching is selling these kids futures short!"

Principal Skinner - "Oh come on Edna, we both know these children HAVE no Future........Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong!"

@forgottenpassword: I think it will be in-class product placement.
1st grade Teacher: Today class we will be learning about addition. Turn your text books to page 57.
Teacher: If Johnny has 4 cans of Delicious Coca-Cola >, and Suzie has 2 cans of refeshing Sprite, now with Zero Calories and no Caffine, how many cans of soda do they have all together?

Sammy : They have 6 cans all together.

Teacher: Good Job Sammy, now why don't you come up here and select a delicious Coca-Cola product from our in-class cooler, and remember, tell your Mommy and Daddy that Coke is the REAL Thing! Class Dismissed.

Ads on the bus would have caused me a serious case of civil disobedience, well ok, vandalism. What a great place for some selective sign replacement. Explain the evils of high fructose corn syrup in everything. Why being a mindless buying sheep is a bag thing. Break down the evils of sub prime credit cards.

@Rachacha:

BRILLIANT!

First off, $2100 per month is nothing. They should be paying more, like $5000 per month per bus.
I don't have any qualms with coke, pepsi, Great America, etc sticking ads inside schoolbusses. Why not? Because ads are EVERYWHERE. You get ads on tv, ads on billboards, ads on side of buildings, ads on bus shelters, ads in malls, in newspapers, plus, I am sure there are pepsi and coke vending machines a the school. Might as well try to get some money from it.
The thing I don't quite understand is how we can send trillions of dollars to Iraq and build up their schools and municipalities and communities, yet, when it comes to our own country, we don't have any money even for schooling, so that they have to resort to putting ads inside schoolbusses to generate extra revenue.

I like to be in countries where I am not bombarded with advertising at every turn. I won't be raising a family in the U.S. for that reason, and many others. It's so nice to be in a peaceful city with minimal advertising. Sure, there is some, but nothing approaching the U.S.

YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA!!!!!

The schools need money - and most people fight any type of tax increase to give schools more money - so if they can get advertisers to pay some money for something as simple as placing small ad's in the bus - then YEA!

(as long as they are appropriate ads - don't need no Viagra ad's or stuff like that)

@Chris Walters: Chris, I think you should have mentioned this was a photoshop and not an actual example of the practice. It seems deceptive and wrong to put a photo of something that will clearly turn the conversation against the idea (if it wasn't there already) (and admittedly, it's a bad idea). But worse, it's like being lied to by a friend, the Consumerist.

This is deplorable. I know schools are always looking for more revenue sources, but this should never have been an OPTION. At the risk of sounding like "Will someone please think of the children!", you're actively advertising to little children who have no concept of how the consumer nation works, or probably even an allowance to buy the products themselves. It's just flashy signs that try to get the kid to pester their parents continuously until they get the thing for them, and they probably have no idea what the heck they want IS besides they saw it on the school bus!

High school students might be old enough to make consumer decisions, but that's not to say that they're not impressionable.

Can we just agree that even if we are a nation of consumers that there is in fact a line to be drawn and South Carolina just blew past it?

@Beerad: what is a fry and leela?

Next it will be Condom and Birth Control adds

@KleineFrau: what country, that isn't full of genocide and the like, will you be in that there is no advertising?

I highly doubt kids are going to pay attention to them anyway. After all, students on a bus are (supposed) to face front and ahead. I don't see them staring at the walls of the bus through the whole ride. If the ads were on the back of the seats or something like that, that would be a whole different matter.

This is the most boring repost of another site's story I have ever seen. Are there no writers here? The monkey avatar is fitting, since that is all it takes to cut & paste.
The COMMENTERS have a better sense of original commentary, at least.

1. No ads should appear where the government mandates your presence. It is a government endorsement of a product or viewpoint. (And I doubt that they will take every ad that someone will pay for. No KKK ads I assume).

2. Money is not the answer to every school problem. Many schools do better than others with less money.

3. Schools want money, fire the old and ineffective teachers that have been around since the 60's

As a resident of SC, I'm kind of surprised that I haven't seen any local media coverage about this yet.

Yeah - "funding" and "education" are two words that are rarely used together in this state. (But not because we can't spell them.)

@shadow735: Actually, THAT (condom and birth control ads) would definitely be worthwhile. And maybe ads for day care services.

@Antediluvian: Agreed. This photo is fake and needs to be labeled as so. Not everyone is going to read the comments to find out that the image isn't real. Likewise, not everyone is going to realize it's a joke.

I guess I'm flattered anyone thought it was real. It looks very fake to me. But I guess I have much better image-doctoring skills than I realized.

@Lo-Pan: or try sao paulo, brazil. hardly a "war zone". -> clicky clicky.

@arcticJKL: you make great points on #1 & #2 & then break out the soundboard for #3. i challenge that it's not the teachers & instead the management of these schools that's ineffective. school officials used to be educators. now they are business managers. in my neck of the woods, superintendents are making $250,000/year (4 year contract) when teachers are starting at $35,000. 2 nearby districts are contemplating consolidation into regional schools DESPITE $100,000+ feasibility studies that suggest against it. no problem, just commission another study until we get one that says this is a good idea. the feds are reducing their funding, the state is reducing their funding, & the mandates increase. everyone MUST be educated, no matter the cost (just don't ask us to pay). the fed now dictates curriculum with a scantron form. do we even have teachers anymore or are they simply "test facilitators"?

& then we discover the root of the problem.

read jonathan kozol's "savage inequalities". we all need to work to save education in this country if we are to have any hope in the future.

@Beerad: Well, we already have a Walt Disney Magnet School here in Chicago pluggin' for Teh Mouse - [www.disney.cps.k12.il.us]