San Diego Unified Parent- Life At School

Full disclosure: we are an advertising family- I’m a commercial/advertising photographer, and my wife is the COO of an agency here in San Diego.  We make our living in photography, video, advertising, public relations, social media and all that goes with it.

That typed, I stumbled across an interesting website that I believe should be on all parent’s radar screens:

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

There are LOTS of ways advertising messages are infiltrating our schools, some more visible than others.  I’m a big free-speech guy, so I’m reticent to create legislation to limit that right.  But I do believe schools deserve special consideration- they should be as advertising-free as possible.  

I also recognize and respect the argument that trying to protect our kids from advertising messages is a bit like trying to stop rain, and it may be wiser to teach our children about the pervasive nature of advertising. If only the district would provide as much media awarness as advertising possibilities, I might be satisfied.

Regardless of which position you take for your family, the above site is an excellent resource to support you.  It monitors many of the ways advertisers are out to reach your children.  One which I found amazing, is “BusRadio” where school busses are equipped with sound systems to provide ad messages to that captive (really!) audience.

Have a look, the site is amazing and valuable. 

Here’s another great resource for kids from PBS:

Don’t Buy It

This site has the single best insightful look at advertising photography- they do a “cover shoot” where before, after and during images are shown to demonstrate how the process really works.  They do a similar treatment for food photography.  Both of these venues are well within my professional purview, and they are accurate.  This site is created for kids- very valuable.