No Logo

What’s going on?

In Naomi Klein’s book No Logo she cites Stuart Ewen on advertising in the 20s. He writes that in the 20’s advertising was just another way to promote patriotism and economic well-being. For example, in the school the advertisements that were conduct involved toothbrush company that taught children how to take care of the teeth. Also in the class room cocoa company can into science class to conduct experiments on different stages of make cocoa. In the 21st century that has all changed. Advertising had evolved into more that just patriotism and economic well-being, but it had become a lifestyle. It has become not only a lifestyle that people depend on, but many other aspects in our everyday lives. One of these aspects is the education system. I believe corporations have captured the athletics, technology and even freedom of speech in our education system. I believe we are force to buy into this “world”.

Schools have become more reliant on corporation in order to fund different projects, like sports. High school teams used to rely on fund raiser in order to support their funds for equipment. Car washes, candy sales, Bar-b-que and catalog sales this is what would be called the tradition team bonding, which has died out. Now days the big corporations like, Nike and Addiads are sponsoring the top high school teams. What happen to the bonding and team effort? 200 university in the US and Canada are sponsored by Nike. Nike had the right, as a sponsor, to “stamp” their logo on everything that involves the team. But of course, like Klein explains, this is very risky for the corporation to led the universities large lump sums of money. So the corporations make sure the coaches are doing everything they can to make this team number 1. But in order to reassure themselves they pay the coaches 1.5 million in sponsorship fees. Earning that kind of money the coaches are making sure they recruit the best player to create the “corporation” team they need.

People would consider corporations sponsorship with athletic departments as visual because you see the logo on uniforms, in the stand on banners but let take it back to the classroom setting. Many class rooms have more “visual tools” or television and computer within the classrooms. But what is being see on these screens is where the corporations and their adverting influence come in. lets take Channel One for example, owned by K-11 communication. They asked North American school boards to let them have 12 minutes of class room time for their programming show. Their programming show would involve “current events” and of course, advertisements. Well that doesn’t seem to bad right? This program is mandatory to be shown in the schools. Teachers are not able to turn off or adjust volume of the programming. This was in order for K-11 to assure that the schools were showing the broadcast show. Also the K-11 would rein verse the school with equipment to modify teach techniques. But it didn’t seem that bad in the beginning, all they asked for was 12 minutes with 2 minutes of programmed commercials. The internet is a wonderful creation is has allowed man to explore make different horizons. I know that have the internet is a good resource in high school, but it