Children Are Not For Sale (No Matter How Nice the Playground)

Chick-fil-A Night. Dominoes Night. Pizza Hut Reading Program. The long laundry list of processed junk in the Boxtop Rewards program. Oh, dear, oh dear. I know education funding keeps getting cut, cut, cut, but please be aware that these companies are dying to get in our schools and get access to our children. I worked at Turner for four years and served as a sales promotion liaison between the national ad sales team and various Turner departments, including Turner Educational Services, which distributed CNN Newsroom to schools nationwide. Not a day passed that some advertiser didn't beg us to let them get in front of those kids. I don't know about you, but my child is not for sale to the highest bidder.

This announcement came this morning in the weekly enews blast from one of our area elementary schools:

My Coke Rewards for Schools Program

Let's work together to bring more resources to our school. For over 80 years, Coca-Cola® has been supporting schools and providing resources which open doors for students. The My Coke Rewards for Schools program is a new way Coca-Cola is refreshing a longstanding commitment to education which gives schools the things they need to provide students with a well-rounded education. Schools can collect points donated by My Coke Rewards members and redeem them for a variety of rewards including playground equipment, creative supplies, classroom materials and more. Points are earned by entering codes found on packages from any of the twelve participating Coca-Cola products including Coca-Cola, Sprite, POWERade, Dasani, and Minute Maid.

Vanderlyn is now registered with the My Coke Rewards for Schools program and it is so easy for you to donate and help Vanderlyn earn points:

1) Register to become a member at www.mycokerewards.com
2) Look for codes on specially marked packages of your favorite Coca-Cola products
3) Enter codes and collect points at www.mycokerewards.com, then select your Vanderlyn to donate your points

Together we can help our students learn and grow by turning My Coke Rewards points into rewards. Please start donating your points today!

Is this how we help our students learn and grow? In all honesty, is it? And haven't parent groups around the country been working to reverse this trend? Do you realize how slippery a slope this is? I know the intention behind the inclusion of this program is positive, and I would like to ask anyone involved to at least keep communications of it outside the school environment.

Here are a couple letters I've written in the past on this topic, to the previous principal. I would have simply gone to the new principal this morning about this issue but a memo came home last week that indicated something like a five-prong protocol for how to approach the principal. Frankly, blogging is easier.

(September 27, 2002)

The enclosed New York Times article (from this past Tuesday, September 24, 2002) outlines the insidious ways that fast food and junk food marketers try to get into schools and advertise their products to a captive and impressionable audience. I ripped it out with the intention of sending it to you with a thank you note for keeping Vanderlyn a “safe zone” from marketers for children, especially marketers of products detrimental to their health. However, an item in this week’s Viking Views newsletter raises concerns for me. The item indicates that representatives from Coca Cola will be reading to many Vanderlyn classes on a day specifically designated as Coke Reading Day. These representatives of the soda manufacturer will also be leaving behind a number of books.

I believe that relationships with marketers such as Coca Cola may represent a “slippery slope” for Vanderlyn and am respectfully requesting complete assurance that representatives from Coca Cola will not be distributing any coupons or samples, or any other materials or merchandise that contain logos or advertise their products. If you would be so kind as to contact me via e-mail at freshbakedcopy@mindspring.com, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your continued commitment to the sanctity of a non-commercial environment for our children during school hours.

(November 18, 2004)

I am writing is response to the Chick-fil-A coupon for free ice cream that my daughter brought home in her VIP today. As I have voiced on previous occasions, I am opposed to the insidious ways that fast food and junk food marketers try to get into schools and advertise their products to a captive and impressionable audience.

I have let go on the Vanderlyn nights at Chick-fil-A and KFC since they occur after school hours. However, the Chick-fil-A logo sponsorship on the monthly character cards, the sales of Chick-fil-A cheesecakes promoted at school, and now this coupon distributed during school hours leads me to conclude that we are crossing the line on a slippery and dangerous slope.

At a time when America is faced with a burgeoning obesity epidemic and an unprecedented acceleration in traditionally adult-onset diseases in our nation’s children, we as parents and educators must be more vigilant about protecting the sanctity of a non-commercial environment during the school hours.

Let's just give it some thought, folks. If we do decide to continue moving forward with these kinds of relationships, then please preserve the sanctity of a commercial-free learning environment (which children are required by law to attend, unless they are being homeschooled) and keep the promotion of these programs restricted to outside-of-school communications only.

For the record, the playground from which the above photo was taken was funded completely without sponsor dollars. It can be done.

Oh, and by the way, here's a little more "food for thought" about Coke in inappropriate environments. If you're ever in the "Room 15" to which I refer, please let me know if anything has changed!