EVALUATION OF THE ADVERTISING ASPECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

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2 EVALUATION OF THE ADVERTISING ASPECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS Elementary and Secondary Education Ministère de l Éducation Direction des ressources didactiques Bureau d approbation du matériel didactique

3 Gouvernement du Québec Ministère de l'éducation, A ISBN Legal Deposit Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, 2004

4 SUMMARY Introduction.1 Definition and forms of advertising.3 Statement and underlying principles of the evaluation criterion concerning advertising.4 General framework for interpreting the evaluation criterion.5

5 Introduction Instructional materials for elementary and secondary school that are approved by the Ministère de l Éducation du Québec (MEQ) are evaluated in terms of advertising. Textbooks and the reproducible parts of teacher's guides used in educational institutions in Québec must be guaranteed to be free of any form of advertising deemed incompatible with the school's educational mission. 1

6 Definition and forms of advertising In this document, advertising is defined as follows: Any communication aiming to solicit or persuade that is found in a textbook or the reproducible parts of a teacher's guide and that presents a particular product, service, person, business or organization in such a way as to make it attractive to potential buyers, if this may result in advantages in terms of financial gain, public image or fame. This definition is the first guideline for determining whether advertising is involved. Various forms of advertising may be found in instructional materials submitted to the MEQ for evaluation: Commercial advertising. This means any form of advertising that, despite its informational nature, serves commercial interests, i.e. aims to sell a product or service. Social advertising. Whereas commercial advertising promotes goods or services, social advertising promotes social attitudes and behaviour. The authors of this type of advertising are mainly governments, businesses, humanitarian or non-profit organizations, and other associations or groups (political parties, religious organizations, trade union federations, professional associations, pressure groups, etc.). Publishing advertising. This is advertising a publishing house does for its publications. For example, a textbook might encourage students to buy a particular reference book or other work. 2

7 Statement and underlying principles of the evaluation criterion concerning advertising The evaluation criterion used is founded on certain principles. Among them are the school's educational mission, certain legal provisions and the MEQ's recent orientations. "In keeping with the principle of equality of opportunity, the mission of a school is to impart knowledge to students, foster their social development and give them qualifications" (Education Act, section 36); hence the school should promote young people's overall development and open their minds to the fundamental values of the human community. In view of this, it is hard to conceive of a school becoming a "store window" for students by allowing commercial propaganda. In other words, the school's educational mission has little to do with the economic function of advertising. Furthermore, there are legal provisions that prohibit advertising in schools. Section 248 of the Consumer Protection Act ("no person may make use of commercial advertising directed at persons under thirteen years of age"), which is applicable to schools, was confirmed by a judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada (April 1989), which deemed it acceptable and reasonable in a democratic society that the freedom of expression of advertisers of products for children be limited. It should be pointed out that this provision is also applicable to secondary school students over the age of 13 (Ministère de l Éducation, Guidelines for Schools on Advertising and Financial Contributions [Québec, 1999], p. 7). Finally, while the recent MEQ orientations do not apply specifically to instructional materials used in schools, they are clearly opposed to any form of advertising directed at elementary and secondary school students (Ministère de l Éducation, Guidelines for Schools on Advertising and Financial Contributions [Québec, 1999]). The evaluation criterion to be used There must be no advertising in textbooks or the reproducible parts of teacher's guides. 3

8 General framework for interpreting the evaluation criterion The question here is whether the evaluation criterion should be applied in all situations or whether exceptions may be allowed. To answer this question, a general interpretive framework is required in order to provide guidelines for making a balanced judgment in the various situations that may arise. This general framework is as follows: The evaluation criterion stating that there must be no advertising in textbooks or the reproducible parts of teacher's guides is applicable in all situations, unless the advertising element meets all the following requirements: 1. The advertising element itself constitutes a focus of learning or has a direct relationship to the focus of learning. 2. No signature image, slogan or sponsor is associated with the advertising element. 3. The advertising element contains no message or illustration aiming to solicit or persuade or promoting any product. 4

9 1. The advertising element itself constitutes a focus of learning or has a direct relationship to the focus of learning. This would be the case, for example, if the advertising element was an integral part of the explicit content of a subject in the Québec Education Program or if it had an obvious cultural, documentary or historical dimension (i.e. the advertising was an important part of the information and contributed to the understanding of the subject) and was represented in a context where the pedagogical intention and interest were clearly evident. Thus, it may be acceptable in instructional materials, given the desire to promote reading by students, to suggest books to read. In this case, it is appropriate to supply certain relevant details (in addition to the title and author of the book, a short assessment and an explanation of its connection with a program of study or the specific contribution it would make to the students' development). Similarly, it would also be possible to provide a photograph of the author, a drawing of the main character or some other image from the book; however, the image of the book's cover or part of the cover should not be shown (only applies to the elementary level). Similarly, other references may be appropriate in textbooks, as in the following examples: public places such as the Jardin botanique, the Biodôme or the Musée de la civilisation, or private facilities such as resorts or amusement parks (admission fees or sponsors should not be indicated, and no one place should be favoured over its competitors) cultural activities of relatively short duration, such as festivals (with the same stipulations as stated in the previous point) attractions associated with a country, region, city or town extracts from popular comic strips characters from cartoons or children's television programs personalities such as an inventor with an invention on the market or a sports personality (sponsors should not be mentioned) 5

10 Bibliographies at the end of instructional materials do not constitute advertising. Web sites may be mentioned in teacher's guides, except for the reproducible parts. However, they should not be included in textbooks for several reasons: the possibility that after approval they might add advertising, begin charging fees, change their mission or simply cease to exist. There must be no Web sites mentioned in textbooks or the reproducible parts of teacher's guides. 6

11 2. No signature image 1, slogan or sponsor is associated with the advertising element. A signature image is understood to mean the graphic representation of a trademark. As shown in the following table, a signature image may take various forms: emblem (emblème), symbol (symbole), graphic or visual sign (signes scriptographiques, visuographiques), pictogram ( pictogramme), initials (sigle), logotype, arbitrary symbol (symbole arbitraire) etc. A slogan is a concise, striking phrase associated with a business or other organization 2 and used in advertising. A sponsor is a business or other organization that funds cultural or sports activities or events. 1. Claude COSSETTE. Comment faire sa publicité soi-même, Québec, Publication Transcontinental (coll. Les Affaires), 1988, p This term is intended to be understood broadly to include companies and corporations, but also political parties, community and non-profit organizations, trade union federations, religious groups, ecology organizations, professional associations, etc. 7

12 Signature images (logos or initials), slogans, or references to sponsors, regardless of the type of advertising in which they are found (commercial, social or publishing), are considered advertising and must not be included in any textbook or in the reproducible parts of teacher's guides. The removal of signature images from illustrations is an adequate and acceptable way of eliminating advertising from instructional materials, provided that all recognizable characteristics of a product (e.g. distinctive colour, specific symbol, characteristic shape, etc.) are also eliminated. Furthermore, signature images, slogans and trademarks that no longer exist should be treated as if they were fictitious. Thus they may be used in textbooks and the reproducible parts of teacher's guides. In addition, trademarks that are used as common nouns (e.g. aspirin, frigidaire, kleenex) do not constitute advertising. They should be written without an initial capital and used in the plural where necessary. In order to be accepted, they must be found in an English dictionary. The use in textbooks of original works or extracts containing trademarks used as common nouns is considered acceptable on the principle that the integrity of writers' works must be respected. On the other hand, it is prohibited in cases where the trademark is not secondary to the message but is itself the message of the material. 8

13 3. The advertising element contains no message or illustration aiming to solicit or persuade or promoting any product. This would be applicable, for example, if textbooks or the reproducible parts of teacher's guides contained texts or illustrations featuring consumer products liked by young people or specific conduct to be adopted in society. In this area, the evaluation criterion is applied fully. The following must not be present in textbooks or in the reproducible parts of teacher's guides: Elementary Level full or partial images of advertising signs for films or videos; images of the cover of a videocassette or videodisk or any other visual element that could be used to promote an artist or the organization or works associated with that artist (play, show, concert, etc.); Elementary and Secondary Level messages or illustrations aiming to solicit and promoting merchandise associated with an artist or with an organization that the artist is involved with (CD, show, figurine, fan club, etc.); texts or illustrations that place too much importance on a single artist or organization; popular mascots wearing the colours of businesses with which they are associated; solicitation for donations to a fundraising campaign. 9

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