In‐school marketing in France: the teachers’ perspective

Examines the viability of advertising within French schools, from the viewpoint of the teachers who work with it daily, using interviews and a questionnaire. Focuses on the Sponsored Education Material (SEM), which is a document created by a company for schoolchildren and can be in the form of pamphlets, videotapes or CD‐ROMs: SEMs deal with topics like road safety, nutrition and environmental awareness. Outlines the reasons why corporations use schools in this way: for instance, the children have to attend and to pay attention to the SEM, and a school gives the corporation a degree of legitimacy. Considers the issues involved of neutrality and bias, and of commercial values in relation to social values. Concludes that the teachers felt that they had not been trained sufficiently to take full advantage of the increased scope for SEMs.