You know it’s cool, because it’s happening at “Skool.”
Yes, school is going to be a lot cooler in the Marysville Joint Unified School District because some of the students will have advertising kiosks to divert their attention.
District trustees last month approved a contract with SkoolLive LLC to install the kiosks — for free — at Lindhurst High School, Marysville High School, McKenney Intermediate School and Yuba Gardens Intermediate School.
In addition, SkoolLive will hold up to six live promotional events on their campuses during lunch.
There’s money to be made, of course, from the advertising the kiosks will display.
The high schools will have seven to 10 kiosks placed in mutually agreeable areas, while the intermediate schools will have three to five kiosks.
Last month, the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs noted the onslaught of SkoolLive kiosks arriving at schools in that part of California.
“SkoolLive, an Oceanside company, launched its school kiosk program one year ago, and now stands on the cusp of its first major roll out. About 500 schools — including the schools in Coachella Valley Unified — are scheduled for installation now and January. Installations are planned at another 1,500 schools before the start of next school year, according to the company,” the paper reported.
George Kuhn, SkoolLive’s director of business development, told the paper: “It’s going to be a game-changer. Kids are very technology-driven nowadays, and we think this is going to fit in with what they are already using on a daily basis.”
Advertising will be the main revenue driver in all of this. The kids are bombarded with ads when they’re not in school, so why not bombard them when they’re in school?
It makes for a seamless transition into the world of conspicuous consumption. After all, that’s what everyone is programmed to do. Buy, buy, buy.
The contract between the district and SkoolLive notes the company “desires to provide … marketing advertising and entertainment services …”
There will be some limits, however. No ads from the “firearm, tobacco or alcohol beverage industries” and nothing that would be considered “violent, inappropriate, offensive, politically incorrect, sexually explicit, or containing any other similar objectively inappropriate content for school district’s students.”
