Advertising aggravates asphalt degredation in modern context

by Shayla Brooks of the Advance Titan

As annoying as the ice and snow of winter is, the potholes it leaves behind are perhaps worse. With city and county government more strapped for cash than ever before, many of these obnoxious potholes won?t get filled before damaging numerous vehicles, if ever. In Chicago, one company has a solution.


The March 26 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that KFC, as in the fried chicken franchise, is willing to fix the annoying holes in exchange for permission to stencil ?refreshed by KFC? in white lettering on the fresh asphalt.


On the surface, this story appears rather harmless, and perhaps even funny. The city gets much needed maintenance done on someone else?s dime, in addition to saving crucial tax dollars. KFC gets publicity not only from the stenciled letters, but also from the news articles that will inevitably cover this quirky approach to marketing. And the motorists receive an easier commute essentially for free, as their tax money wasn?t used, instead paid for with discretionary dollars spent on fried chicken, biscuits and mashed potatoes.


Are we, as citizens, willing to outsource public works projects to corporations and allow ourselves to be surrounded by even more advertisement?


Every day we are bombarded by advertisements, and seldom do we pay much attention. The first things that come to mind are usually the standard television commercials we skip through when given the opportunity, glossy magazine pages, and the sports stadiums named for corporate sponsors, such as Time Warner Cable field in Appleton. Granted, all of these examples are relatively benign; these ads are focused around for-profit leisure activities that one can easily choose to avoid or ignore.


The problem comes when advertising creeps out of the business realm and into the public sector. Things like roads and schools should not be turned into money making opportunities. In an environment like today?s, these types of public ventures do indeed need money now more than perhaps ever before, but allowing corporations to brand public works to get this money is not the answer. Advertising does not belong so deep in the public sphere. The notion of companies putting their wallets into cash-strapped public sectors in order to take advantage of extremely visible and practically unavoidable ad space is most prominent in schools.


In the past decade, there has been much controversy surrounding the idea of advertising in schools. School administrators often say they cannot afford to turn down the advertising and corporate sponsorships and keep funding programs. The impressionable minds of children combined with the necessities of attending school create a goldmine for advertisers to take advantage of these factors and turn students into consumers in exchange for money to fund various programs.


The National Institute on Media and the Family Web site [http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_adsinschool.shtml] points out numerous ways in which companies directly advertise to students in schools. Some of the more shocking examples listed include ?educational? posters in hallways advertising candies such as Skittles, 3 Musketeers and Starburst; school events paid for or sponsored by corporations, such as Homecoming sponsored by Dr. Pepper; and reward programs such as Book It!, where students receive coupons for free Pizza Hut pizza in exchange for meeting reading goals.


Most recently, there have been news stories about a teacher in a suburban San Diego high school who has been selling advertisement space on his exams. Though the USA Today article points out that most of these advertisements are fairly harmless inspirational messages paid for by parents of these students, it is scary that one of the most formative environments in a person?s life has to fall victim to advertising.


While putting advertisements on patched potholes is not exactly the same as putting those same ads on a high school math exam, both raise the question of boundaries. Tax-funded public institutions such as schools and roads should not become avenues for companies to attempt to make a potential profit. As citizens, we pay taxes to the government in exchange for certain necessary services, like the two previously mentioned. If companies are allowed to ?sponsor? such things, will there be any place people can have the freedom to be seen as humans and not dollar signs?