Commercial magazine uses school children to target parents
September 11, 2008 by niallsmyth
A new commercial magazine, produced by the “market-leading family media group” called Ireland4kids has been launched in the Republic of Ireland, aimed at “parents of primary school-aged children “and aiming “to provide parents with useful information on education, health, parenting, entertainment and fun things to do for all the family”.
Ireland4kids is sister paper of ni4kids, which distributes 35,000 magazines in Northern Ireland every month. The company now have begun to use primary schools and the children in the schools to distribute commercial material to their parents.
The magazines arrive unsolicated in schools and despite claiming to “useful information on education, health, parenting” contains little other than targeted advertsing for chidlren’s mobile phones, buggies and chidlren’s clothes, with a small number of ‘articles’ regarding parenting.
It is hugely cynical for a commercial company to attempt to use primary schools, paid for by tax payers to distribute their advertising materials (albeit dressed up as an information filled magazine). One wonders what is next, Lidl, Aldi or Tesco Brochures with short side pieces on class size or child care for each child to bring home to mum or dad??
With schools being literally ‘dumped’ with this ‘garbage’, who pays the cost of their disposal, should schools refuse to distribute them? Surely, legislation exists to prohibit unsolicitated mail shots to people’s homes? Can we not extend this to our schools and school chidlren?
In addition, one wonders what it would cost Ireland4kids to pay for the distribution of their magazine door-to-door rather than use the ‘child labour’ at its disposal in our primary schools?
These publications have no place in our schools and principals,schools and ultimately the Department of Education need to take a stand to protect our schools.
