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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995                   TAG: 9504190058
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

CONSUMER GROUP FINDS ADS INFILTRATING SCHOOL PROGRAMS

From textbook covers to sponsored educational materials, advertisers are gaining unchecked access to the classroom in a development that threatens the integrity of education in America, a consumer group said Tuesday.

Schools have become vulnerable to accepting ads and other promotional materials because of chronic budgetary problems, growing commercialism in society and competition among companies to reach the youth market, the nonprofit group Consumers Union said in a report.

It suggested that school officials be more vigilant and demanding about the quality of sponsored or donated materials used in classrooms.

Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, reported five years ago that children were being bombarded with more than 30,000 commercial messages a year and thousands of companies were developing videos, guidebooks and giveaways to reach school children.

Its new study, called ``Captive Kids: A Report on Commercial Pressures on Kids at Schools,'' was commissioned as a follow-up to that report.

The 18-month study examined commercialism in schools ranging from advertising on school buses and in school hallways to sponsored contests, single-sponsor magazines and video programs with commercials.

Charlotte Baecher, education services director at Consumers Union, said the researchers found ``an enormous and unprecedented amount'' of advertising in schools.

``We were even more alarmed to find that much of the advertising has already seeped into the curriculum - and distorted it - by way of sponsored educational materials like activity guides and handouts that contain biased and incorrect information,'' Baecher said in a statement.

She said more than 100 samples of sponsored educational materials were evaluated, and 68 percent contained biased information that reflected favorably on or ignored competition to products sold by the companies that paid for the material.

The report said it found increasing pressure on school administrators and teachers to form partnerships with business that ``turn students into a captive audience for commercial messages, often in exchange for some needed resource.''

by CNB