Advertising in KHS

Worthwhile Initiative for Letting Lots of Industries Advertise in More Schools

KHS needs money, that much is obvious, even to them. The means of getting it, however, have yet to be resolved. I suggest advertising. KHS is (currently) a grant maintained school, so it can obtain money from whatever sources it wants. Why not sell some of the acres of white, dull wall to local companies. Some ideas:

Why shouldn't we? It's done already

Some think advertising in schools is not right, exposing children to influential adverts. Why not? KHS is a secondary school with mature pupils who can differentiate between right and wrong. And anyway; it's done all the time. Observe:

  1. 3 (count 'em) vending machines outside the cafeteria area, each with a huge advert for some kind of drink.
  2. Library is packed full of adverts telling us to read books and where exactly we can buy them.
  3. Room 22 has a notice on the door saying the computers were donated by a certain company in 1983.
  4. ALL computers advertise Centrex (or some other computer manufacturer) via a small logo on the front.
  5. Computers advertise Microsoft software, as well as RM software. On the Internet, pupils are exposed to a vast amount of advertising.
  6. A programme is often sold at a performance of the school's latest play. This contains wodges of adverts for local companies.
  7. Midland run a bank INSIDE THE SCHOOL! They even (subtely) call it the MidBank.
  8. The school yearbook is looking for sponsors to help cover the costs.
  9. Splashdown periodically give away hundreds of little money off tokens. These are given out in the register.
  10. Adverts for local parties and nightclubs are also given out in the register.
  11. The school newsletter often mentions local companies, which gives them a huge exposure.
  12. In Year 11, Dorset Careers come into school and give a lecture on your career. It may seem helpful, but they are just a company, with a profit to make like any other company. Talking in a school is a huge, interactive advert for them.
  13. Student organisers have the contact address for the people who made and designed it.
  14. One of the tech rooms (C12) is entirely sponsored and purchased by "The Engineering Council. The Gatsby charitable foundation. Dorset TEC."
  15. Above the door of the aforementioned room is a large Shell logo.
  16. All tech equipment is covered in brand names.
  17. Leaflets advertising the BBC Bitesize range of revision books were given out in registration.
  18. Videos that have been recorded from the TV sometimes have adverts in the middle of them, which we are often forced to sit through.
  19. The old computers have the Acorn logo all over them.
  20. Sports equipment is all brand name stuff, avaiLable for us to buy in shops. The stuff we use in PE obviously has the power to influence us.
  21. The whiteboards, the thing we spend most of the day looking at, has the brand name in the corner.
  22. All printers have company logos on them.
  23. Every single exercise book has "The Consortium" logo on it.
  24. The school endorses the collection of Tesco "Free books for schools" vouchers, which ultimately create awareness of Tesco's service.
  25. The school actively encourages the purchase of Casio calculators over any other brands and goes as far as to exclude pupils from certain aspects of the lesson when they don't have one from this manufacturer.

Not only that, but I believe a school has recently been taken over by a company because it's previous administration were unfit for the job. The children here will quite obviously be submitted to large doses of corporate brainwashing, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Many of the above examples of advertising are for a good cause, but why shouldn't all subsequent adverts be like that? Companies that offer school related items such as revision books and stationary would surely be a good cause.

What to do

The CDT faculty is well equiped to manufacture high quality casings. Perhaps instead of wasting time and effort making pointless little projects that get thrown away sooner than a Readers Digest Prize Draw Leaflet, they could make some advert cases to hang on the walls. We would need these since posters would rapidly get torn and damaged in the regular corridor bundles. Specification:

We would need as many of them as we have free wall sections. These could be sold at a price of £100 per month, or something. Local companies would pay highly for them as pupils are a perfect target audience.

The school would have to advertise for the advert space itself. A simple advert in The Echo should suffice. Perhaps when the scheme has started, people would generate their own publicity about it, since it is the first time it's ever been done.

Why might a local company want to advertise in KHS?

KHS has nearly 1,600 students and 100 teachers. This is a large audience, all in the same age group (except the teachers). 13 -18 year olds are the main target audience for many companies, such as those who supply computer games and clothes. With people walking around school, usually past the same adverts, they would definitely get seen a lot.

What kind of money are we talking about?

Assuming the school has 50 prime-time viewing places on walls, selling for £100 a month each, the school would get £5000 a month. Over the course of a year (assuming only 9 months of the year is spent at school), this would be £45,000.

Perhaps the school could spend this money on buying in a couple of really great teachers?

As the news of the schemes success spreads, the price could be jacked up. High traffic areas such as outside the canteen could be bought for £1000.