Seattle school district aims to be ad-free
Seattle schools haven't yet become the advertising-free zone that some parent activists have sought.
But if a visit to Washington Middle School yesterday is any indication, the tide has turned away from easy corporate access to students' hearts, minds and wallets. And the Seattle School District is winning national accolades for its effort to remove advertising from schools.
The district next week will receive a $5,000 award from a national anti-commercialism group, Commercial Alert, for the best effort in the nation to limit school advertising.
Members of the Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools who toured Washington yesterday found some vending machines and posters bearing corporate logos during a two-hour walk-through at the Central Area school.
The visitors were more impressed, though, by what they didn't see. Students weren't watching advertising-laden Channel One broadcasts. Corporate logos didn't dominate hallways and classroom walls.
The largest advertising logo in the building was on a Coke vending machine tucked into a nook behind the gymnasium.
With some exceptions, the visitors liked what they saw in their first formal review of advertising since the School Board voted in November to discourage commercialism in the schools.
That policy represented a complete reversal from the direction set by then-Superintendent John Stanford in 1996, when he proposed advertising to students as a way of bringing more money to schools.
The School Board that year endorsed advertising and corporate sponsorships but reversed itself four months later.
The district was without a clear policy until last fall, when the board voted to boot out Channel One, a youth-oriented TV program with commercial advertising; restrict advertising on vending machines; and severely limit the use of commercial logos elsewhere in schools.
Citizens' Campaign visitors found a few things that concerned them.
Several plastic-covered panels posted on a wall outside the gym by Youthstream Media Networks featured short articles along with ads for Post cereals, Oxy shower gel, Gillette's Soft & Dry antiperspirant and Gillette's Venus razor for women.
The Youthstream panels, partly obscured by a chain-link security gate, were so inconspicuous, however, Principal Marilyn Day said she had never noticed them.
The visitors also were concerned about a bilingual poster with a Crest toothpaste logo.
The walk-through also revealed a sign with a large Nike "whoosh" and the footwear company's "Just do it" slogan on the door of an office in the gym. Smaller Nike logos appeared on inspirational athletic posters.
The Apple computer logo and the company's "Think different" slogan appeared on black-and-white posters of famous people in at least two classrooms.
Citizens' Campaign team leader Jonathan Stansell said the Gillette Venus ad, with bikini-clad sunbathers, was a "blatant" violation of the commercialism policy. But overall, he said he was pleased by what he saw at Washington.
Compared with what a PTSA survey of schools found in 1997 — Pringles and Mountain Dew book covers, Pepsi reader boards and Channel One — the level of commercialism was relatively tame, said two veterans of that earlier survey.
Concerns about commercialism were one reason for Washington's decision several years ago to limit the number of fund-raisers, eliminating those that sell commercial products such as candy and wrapping paper.
Day said commercialism had ceased to be a major issue when she came to the school in 1999.
School-district spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg said many principals are seeking advice from the district's legal office about what is permitted under the district's new commercialism policy. "There is certainly an increased awareness on the part of principals about what's appropriate and what's not, and what's permissible under the policy and what's not."
Brita Butler-Wall, founder and executive director of the Citizens' Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools and former PTSA president at Washington, said the Citizens' Campaign will visit Meany Middle School next week and will schedule visits at other Seattle middle schools next fall.
"We wish the walk-throughs weren't necessary, but we have all the evidence in the world that the district has not been aggressive in implementing the policies," Butler-Wall said. "The citizens have to hold them accountable."
Keith Ervin can be reached at 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com.