(March 30, 2001) -- Victoria Secret models flaunting their voluptuous bodies, the Blue-Man Group demonstrating theatric foolishness and two whole minutes of Britney Spears dancing to Pepsi music. These are just some of the images that the average teenager is bombarded with on a daily basis. And with companies spending more than $400 million on advertising a year, it’s no wonder that these advertisements and products become household commodities.

But such advertising is typically limited to the domain of television. Most people would never consider schools as being a medium of advertising, for schools have always been and always will be pulpits of “morality and academics” – until now.

In recent years, soft drink manufactures like Coca-Cola and Pepsi have negotiated very lucrative deals with many school districts including Anaheim and Glendale. These contracts, along with the propagation of vending machines on campuses, have allowed high schools to net nearly $100,000 annually in additional revenues.

And while Coca-Cola admits that only one percent of its revenues derive from schools, there’s always the consumer loyalty issue. By providing schools with products like computers – for example Compaq here at Clark – corporations can gain enormous consumer exposure that stretches beyond the fences of school.

For corporations like Compaq and Novell, good public exposure means big bucks. And with teens being one of the largest shopping demographics in the world, Novell and Compaq could stand to make millions of dollars.

What company, or capitalist-hungry school official, in their right mind wouldn’t want a piece of that? Under these exclusive contracts, the more exposure sold, the more money in a school’s pocket.

Such arrangements are obviously profitable for both parties, but are students being swindled with the profits? Students receive their “piece-of-the-pie” in the form of snazzier proms and most importantly a huge chunk of hypocrisy.

Clark students are taught that good nutrition is vital to overall health; yet Clark is stuffing the mouths of students with soft drinks, candy and snack foods. The result isn’t always pretty when students go to class wired on caffeine and sugar.

Another issue at Clark is the nature of its “captive audience.” How fair is it for Clark students when they are forced to subject themselves to seven hours of commercialism? One must remember that state law requires minors to attend school, so for corporations like Compaq and Coca-Cola, Clark is nothing more than a seven-hour television ad.

In all, commercialism in schools is a terrific idea. Schools can obtain almost $100,000 and corporations can exploit the teenage population. The only people cheated are the teens, but who cares about them? They’re just a shopping demographic.