Why I Said No to Coca-Cola

 For my blog I decided to focus on the chapter "Why I Said No to Coca-Cola" from Rethinking Popular Culture and Media. This chapter takes place on pages 19 and 20. In this chapter, John Sheehan focuses on the reasons he went against the rest of the school board (as vice president) in Douglas County, Colorado and voted against the introduction of Coca-Cola into their schools.

Sheehan argues that “[he] can no longer accept the notion of our schools becoming brokers for advertising space or, worse yet, middlemen in the merchandising of products directly to our students.” (19) He feels that the use of marketing within the schools put unfair pressure onto students and makes them less like people and more like a business transaction. He lists four main reasons he is against the idea.

His first reason is that marketing and public schools just don't mix well. Sheehan states, “Public education has an agenda that is already crowded enough. When we become marketers and distributors, we confuse our mission. I worry about a time when our educational goals might be influenced or even set by private companies targeting our students with their own narrow messages.” (19) He goes on to talk about how major companies major markets to target are kids, specifically schools. Our schools are already overrun with marketing, which puts less emphasis on education and more on the consumable world.

Sheehan's second reason is that by allowing these companies to come into our schools, we are opening the doors to consumerism. He states, “The pressure to buy and measure our success in life through the things we acquire is overwhelming. Education should offer away for students to seek a good life that means more than just wealth.” (20) What message is the consumerism giving to our students? That they have a price and they can be bought and sold like the products they bring into our schools?

The third argument that he makes is that businesses are targeting schools because they are a captive audience. He states, “There is something unethical, in my opinion, about viewing our captive audience of students as targets for current and future marketing efforts.” (20) This targeting leads students, educators, and families to feel like the purpose of school is not just education, but for the marketing of products as well. The only focus should be on the education of students.

Sheehan's final argument is that we are letting legislators and the public off the hook. Sheehan says, “My state ranks pitifully low in funding for public schools, but when we sign up with corporate giants like Coke, we are sending the message that a multimillion-dollar market is ours for the taking.” By saying this and making this argument, he is arguing that even if schools are underfunded and mismanaged, these corporations are getting them "off the hook" by bringing their advertising into the schools. This is giving local power away to big corporations; corporations that do not care about the "target audience".

Overall, I really enjoyed this article. I found so much truth in it and I really do feel that our schools are not the place for consumerism and marketing.