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24.05.2002
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Russian advertisers fill textbook niche
It is looking quite likely that in the near future, the textbooks of Russia’s...
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Russian advertisers fill textbook niche
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It is looking quite likely that in the near future, the textbooks of Russia’s schoolchildren will abound with adverts. In a generation from now, a fully-fledged consumer society will emerge in Russia, having been taught to read, write and add up with the help of consumer products.
''Mummy washed the window'' - one of the first sentences Russian schoolchildren learn, could tell pupils the exact window cleaning product that mummy uses. The exact amount of tomatoes needed to produce a bottle of a particular brand of ketchup may help to teach arithmetic.
In May this year, major publishers and advertisers commandeered one of the last ad-free areas in Russia – school textbooks. According to the Russian Izvestia daily, this year, the state-owned publishing house Prosveshcheniye, the major publisher of Russia’s school textbooks, in cooperation with the advertising agency APR Optikum, plans to launch a pilot project to advertise children’s cosmetics Drakosha (shower gels, toothpastes, and other toiletry items) in school textbooks.
A representative of the advertising firm confessed to an Izvestia correspondent that at first ''we all felt like bogy men. But then we realized that sooner or later that niche would be occupied anyway. After all, children watch TV commercials, along with their parents. And special children-oriented advertising in children’s publications will only be of benefit to them''.
The details of the deal have been kept strictly confidential. However, the parties have already reached a preliminary agreement. The project leader Alexander Pirikov of Prosveshcheniye told Izvestia that textbook advertisements will popularize a healthy way of living and encourage children to go in for sports. ''We also plan to advertise web-sites dedicated to combating illicit drugs,'' director general of the publishing house Alexander Kondakov told Izvestia.
Izvestia
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