MCGRAW-HILL is taking a beating for one of its math textbooks that uses the names of real products -- Nike, Gatorade, M&Ms -- as examples in its problems.
The publisher says that it doesn't benefit from mentioning the products, that they were just chosen because the kids were familiar with them. However, critics say it is crass commercialization that just accelerates the younger generation's inexorable march to perdition.Where have these people been?
A kid who reaches 7th or 8th grade, the level of the textbooks, has probably been subjected to several million commercials and ads. They are veterans of Saturday morning cartoon ads that make tiny, cheesy toys look big, mobile and fun. These are not credulous little rubes but hardened, wary consumers.
Health zealots complain that the schools are contracting out food service to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell but -- flash! -- that's the kind of food they eat. Unless the authorities are willing to arm the cafeteria staff with cattle prods and stun guns -- not that we'd rule that out -- the kids will throw in the garbage any food they suspect of containing trace elements of nutrition.
Other outraged adults -- probably the same people who insist the schools do more with less -- point to concession deals with Coke and Pepsi that give the schools a cut of the profits. In Washington, D.C., where a paid school board recommends raises for itself while cutting extracurricular activities, a popular junior high principal may be fired for taking a 30 percent cut from Domino's pizza to pay for extra programs.
No parent who has been flogged and browbeaten by a boosters' club to sell ads in a program would be dismayed by such commercialism. For $250 a quarter-page, Saddam Hussein could extend best wishes for a great season to our lacrosse team.
The kids themselves are walking advertisements -- T-shirts and clothes with the names and logos of athletic teams, bands, resorts, designer sportswear and, unless the school cracks down, liquor and beer. Space aliens are probably puzzling over why every other American kid is named Tommy Hilfiger and why anyone, alien or not, would name a child Old Navy.
There's a move afoot in some places to put ads in and on school buses -- just like the buses and subways the grownups ride.
The San Diego Chargers play in Qualcomm Stadium; the Colorado Rockies in Coors Stadium; the Washington Wizards play in the MCI Center; and the Boston Celtics in the FleetCenter. And we think a 13-year-old might be led astray by a little commercialism in pursuit of the binomial theorem?
In Los Angeles, Mayor Richard Riordan is seeking corporate sponsors -- who would get to use their names or corporate logos -- to redevelop blighted neighborhoods. For $10 million, a corporation can have a slum named after it. For enough money, the extremely wealthy chief of Microsoft could probably persuade Gary to change its name to Bill, Ind.
Even the Washington Monument has a corporate sponsor, Target Stores, for its renovation. And we think it's the younger generation who's in danger from commercialization.