City buses have long served as mobile billboards on which marketers can advertise their goods and services, but for the most part the familiar yellow school buses carrying kids to and from classes
have remained pristine and banner-free. But that's changing as marketers seek new outlets for their messages and school districts are becoming desperate for new sources of revenue. In the past year,
districts in Arizona and Massachusetts have allowed marketers to paste ads for real estate agencies, a toy store, and an ambulance company on their buses, and more such deals are reportedly about to
surface in Michigan, Colorado, Florida, and Pennsylvania. "This will spread across the nation, because there's so much money that will come into schools as a result of doing this," says Daniel
Shearer, director of transportation at the Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona, which anticipates the ads will bring in $300,000 this year and up to $900,000 in a few years. But some
consumer groups and parents are concerned. They say America's children--already bombarded by ads--shouldn't become captive audiences on their way to and from school. "It teaches children that they're
for sale," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of the consumer group Commercial Alert. "They're just a bunch of sardines packed in a bus being sold to an advertiser."
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