…as Government back-pedals on playground advertising scheme

The Government has executed a U-turn on its support for a controversial scheme to allow advertisers to advertise directly to children in schools.

The shift in position coincides with a rebuke for a McDonald’s franchise in Northern Ireland for sending direct mailers to schoolchildren inviting them to “come and see Ronald McDonald”. A complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority following the promotion by JMC Restaurants, in Lisburn County Down, was upheld.

Both incidents refocus attention on the controversial issue of educational marketing.

At the weekend it was revealed that Junior Education Minister Cheryl Gillan had given support to initial proposals which would have allowed poster advertising for everything from sweets to computer games to appear in school corridors and playgrounds. But the Department for Education & Enterprise has stepped back from supporting the scheme saying that Gillan did not intend to “give the green light” to blanket advertising in schools.

Gillan supported the scheme, promoted by a Colchester-based company Imagination for School

Media Marketing, in a letter to the Colchester Conservative MP John Whittingdale.

But in a statement she says: “No one, including the DfEE, wants to see walls of schools plastered with advertisements whose sole purpose is to sell products to school- children. It would appear that my letter has been used in an inappropriate manner.” Labour Party shadow consumer affairs minister Nigel Griffiths condemned the ad scheme, but says that the party sees no link between the estimated 300m educational marketing industry and this latest proposed escalation in school ads.

Marketing Week has begun distribution of a survey looking at the wider issue of educational marketing. The survey of more than 400 top advertisers is co-sponsored by Business in the Community, The Schools Consortium and Poise Marketing. The closing date for questionnaires is July 17.