School Buses Latest Victim of Ad Creep
Adam Remson
Brandweek
February 4, 2008
Late last month, the South Carolina Department of
Education invited advertisers to get on the bus,
literally.
Seeking a new source of revenue, the board inked a deal
with contractor SAC to place an 11-inch-wide strip of
advertising above the windows inside school buses.
Interested school districts get about $2,100 per month
per bus.
That came a month after McDonald’s agreed to remove its
logo from report cards disseminated to elementary school
students in Seminole County, Fla. Both are recent
examples of ad creep, which some argue has gotten out of
control. “It’s become so pervasive that the average
educator can’t really see it,” said Joe Kelly, a
steering committee member of the Campaign for A
Commercial-Free Childhood in Boston, said of ad creep.
“It’s really crossing the line.”
But marketing to kids is just one aspect of the
phenomenon. Marketers are also using out-of-home ads to
an increasingly in-your-face effect. For instance, three
weeks ago, cable network A&E introduced a billboard in
New York’s SoHo neighborhood that features a technology
that beams targeted sounds to pedestrians. In this case,
it was for a show called Paranormal State and the sounds
included a voice whispering “Who’s there? Who’s There? .
. . It’s not your imagination.” Holosonic Research Labs,
Watertown, Mass., provided the technology for that
effort. Some other recent examples:
• In late 2006, the California Milk Processing Board,
known for its “Got Milk?” ads, put up a bus shelter in
San Francisco that smelled like cookies. City officials
quickly ordered CBS Outdoor, the company that held ad
contracts with the city’s bus shelters, to take it down.
• Geico tried to place billboards on the George
Washington Bridge, toll booths and approach roads last
year. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,
which runs the bridge, nixed the plan.
• Dr Pepper was also scolded last February and
ultimately scrapped a promotion that would have sent
consumers into a historic cemetery in Boston as part of
a scavenger hunt.
• Internet telephony firm Jangl, Pleasanton, Calif., is
testing “in-call” advertising, which credits consumers’
phone bills if they listen to 15-second ads during their
phone calls.
• Microsoft has introduced a grocery cart-mounted
console that shows video ads for items in stores.
• A Needham, Mass., firm called Bus Radio offers a
sponsor-driven network targeted at kids on school buses.
For media buyers in the outdoor space (which was up 8%
each of the last two years and should top $7 billion in
2007, per the Outdoor Advertising Assn. of America,
Washington), it is often hard to know where to draw the
line. “The line is based on individuals—how they react
and whether they feel it is intrusive or not. You have
to be careful,” said Jason Kiefer, svp at out-of-home
communications agency Posterscope, New York.
David Koppelman, general manager of McDonald Media, New
York, lauded A&E’s effort, but looked askance at Sony’s
2004 attempt to put logos for Spider-Man 2 on bases
during baseball games. “You don’t touch the national
pastime,” Koppelman said. “Ads in the stadium are one
thing, but inside the base path is another.”
It remains to be seen whether school bus ads will
provoke the same reaction. While South Carolina
educational board members have concerns about school bus
ads, it appears to be going ahead with the plan. “I
never thought [advertising inside school buses] was a
good idea to start with,” said Donald Tudor, South
Carolina’s DOE School Transportation Director, “but when
you run a state program and districts request this be
set in motion, you do it so they can make a choice.
Ultimately, I couldn’t think of a good reason why they
shouldn’t have the option.”
For its part, SAC promises the ads will be
age-appropriate, promote a healthy and productive life,
and are directly approved by district appointed
personnel. Ads sold thus far are from local businesses.