Up Next? High School – Brought To You By….

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the how-it-all-works... dept

mcc writes “A company called Universal Scoreboards has come up with a novel way of getting advertising into high schools. The company is giving away high-tech scoreboards to schools and getting prime ad real estate in exchange. Advertisers get a very targeted, captive audience, USB gets advertising dollars, and the school gets a cool new scoreboard and a share of the ad revenue. While the practice raises questions about the propriety of using schools as marketing centers, the potential for some schools to supplement inadequate funding may help it gain widespread acceptance.” This does strike me as an interesting business model experiment, even if some find it a bit upsetting to see schools get more corporate. Companies are increasingly realizing that business models can be a bit different than simply selling things directly, though, when it gets into the school system, it’s not hard to understand why it upsets some people.