I LOVE this idea. Putting ads on the outside of school buses is a no-brainer. Municipal bus systems have been doing this for years, and since the advertising is targeting to people outside the vehicles--not kiddies on the inside--how can anyone complain?
Though I'll admit that I'm not terribly concerned about advertising inside buses either. In Montgomery County, Maryland, where I live, the local school district was experimenting with BusRadio, a service that pipes in pop hits to the tykes, in exchange for big bucks for schools. (And yes, there's advertising too, pre-screened to ensure that it's age-appropriate.) But alas, the Consumers Union and the National PTA complained, and the service was promptly cancelled. (This is the same debate communities have been having about Channel One, the classroom TV equivalent, for decades.)
I know, I know, I'm not going to be crazy about advertisers going after my son either (at 14 months, he's watched almost no TV so far, partly for this reason). But done right it's fairly innocuous. And this argument, aired in the Montgomery County bus debate, just makes me laugh: "Detractors argue students could better pass the time in quiet reflection or conversing with friends."
Quiet reflection? Have these people never been on a school bus? Have they never met ten-year-olds?
If you are going to make the interior of buses advertising-free, at least make it learning-rich. An initiative in Arkansas, reported in the New York Times' annual "Year in Ideas" issue, turns moving school buses into computer-and-learning labs. I wonder if the computer software they use includes pop-up ads.
