
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990                   TAG: 9007030181
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

COMPANY PLANS TO SCREEN VIDEO ADS IN HIGH SCHOOLS

When Atlanta teen-agers start school next fall, they'll find their favorite consumer products waiting for them via video.

Atlanta-based Telephone Advertising Corp. of America is installing video advertising units in kiosks above public telephones throughout the city's 17 public high schools.

Coca-Cola has already signed up, and Reebok International, Pizza Hut and General Foods are negotiating to buy 15-second spots, said company president Herb Hamitt.

"We will be the most effective medium [to reach] high schoolers," Hamitt said, given the high telephone usage among students.

If the video system sells all its time, Hamitt estimates the schools will receive $300,000 in commissions. He would not estimate how much his total revenues would be. Southern Bell, which is licensing the use of their phones for the project, will also receive an undisclosed fee.

The Atlanta school board has been unwilling to approve Whittle Communications' classroom news program, which includes advertising, but Murdell McFarlin, a board spokeswoman, said Superintendent Jerome Harris authorized the Telephone Advertising deal in January. The schools plan to use the proceeds for sports insurance, she said.

Many educators and advocacy groups have argued that advertising in the classroom is inappropriate for children, but McFarlin said she has "not heard any issues raised about this particular concept."

But Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television, who has opposed the Whittle program, called Channel 1, said this project is equally troublesome.

"They're exchanging kids for money," said Charren. "I knew when Channel 1 came into the schools that this was the camel's nose under the tent."

Nevertheless, Telephone Advertising said that it plans to expand into Atlanta's 13 junior high schools next year.

The company has also presented proposals to other school districts and may install the monitors in airports and malls.

"It's not geared specifically to schools, but to wherever there are consumers," said Walter Alyene, a Telephone Advertising account manager.

by CNB