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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat's the next book title Corporate America will sneak into kids' libraries?
Wont someone please think of the children?
Wed like to think somebody is thinking about the children, but for the right reasons. For example, one distracting hot button today is the potential advertising of legalized marijuana, which is probably the least of the worries that we should have about kids who are supposed to be taking care of us down the line. We should be happy that they could learn how to steal dads stash, smoke some weed and pass out to The Big Bang Theory rather than drink a pint of Jack Daniels and go for a joy ride in moms car.
But what this hot button is really about is something we do agree with in principle: over-marketing to children is a little sick when the only benefactor is a shady corporation.
One need only think of Joe Camel or the Sugar Pops Toad to remember that big business has a shameless history of using not-so-subtle methods to turn todays kids into tomorrows customers.
We found more evidence when we read this article by Rachel Cloues, a teacher-librarian in San Francisco. Cloues works at one of the hundreds of schools that über-corporation Target has given boatloads of money to overhaul their libraries.
This is all done in partnership with the Heart of America Foundation, which is dedicated to finding ways for Corporate America to volunteer in their communities.
So far, so good, right? Were all for corporations being altruistic and giving back. If they wont give their workers a living wage, they might as well do something with all that cash.
But, according to Cloues, the story gets more interesting. After Target overhauled her library, it got an exciting visit from two famous NASCAR drivers who duly posed for pictures with students in front of their bulls-eye-covered awesome race car! Then the drivers read a book to the kids, every one of whom got to sit on stadium cushions branded with the Target logo. Red-shirted Target employees circulated around. And everybody got to go home with a free Target bookbag!
We realize that kids in America get exposed to this kind of branding all the time. But in such a concentrated dose in what should be a trusted and educational environment? Predictably, this event made quite an impression on those little attendees. According to Cloues, one first-grader ran home and told her mother that, referring to one of the NASCAR drivers, The guy [at the library] said they wanted you to buy stuff at Target!
Even more outrageously, it turns out that Targets library overhaul happened not during the summer months, when the school was closed, but after the semester started to coincide with the late-fall opening of a nearby Target store. So, the schools library was essentially stolen for a corporate promotion.
After a struggle, Clouess school library was spared the fate of other Target-targeted school libraries. Those victims got their walls plastered with Targets corporate bulls-eye logo as well as another special corporate gift for the kiddies: shelves lined with books bearing titles like, The Story of Wal-Mart, The Story of Starbucks and The Story of McDonalds. All lined up in the non-fiction section as part of a corporate-themed Built for Success series for children.
This got our brains a-whirling. Since Corporate America will keep being shamelessly shameless in marketing to impressionable kids, they probably arent going to give up on stocking school libraries. Certainly theyll expand the Built for Success series. What titles do YOU think theyll come up with next?
(Posted by author. Original post, sources and poll at http://lesterandcharlie.com/2014/08/07/kiddie-target-practice/)
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What's the next book title Corporate America will sneak into kids' libraries? (Original Post)
bondwooley
Aug 2014
OP
Here's a title: "The Little Corporation that Could (Move Overseas to Avoid Taxes)" nt
LiberalEsto
Aug 2014
#1
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)1. Here's a title: "The Little Corporation that Could (Move Overseas to Avoid Taxes)" nt
bondwooley
(1,198 posts)2. It could have an interactive map
with all the offshore safe havens.
GeorgeGist
(25,324 posts)3. Willie Wanker and the Apple™ Factory.
bondwooley
(1,198 posts)4. Now that's good! nt
scrubthedata
(382 posts)5. "Goodnight Ice Caps" n/t