Junior high is hell - and not just for prepubescent students. Case in point: an ill-conceived image makeover is backfiring for ZapMe! Corp., a digital curriculum and in-school
marketing company. ZapMe! delivers educational content to school systems through computers it provides to schools for free. But its material is ad-supported, which raises the
ire of children's advocates and politicians who oppose marketing in schools.
Fanning the flame is the company's recent attempt to divert media attention from its advertising activities. A PR representative for ZapMe! tells PR News' sister publication
Selling to Kids that company execs have made the decision to focus press on ZapMe!'s educational efforts.
Fatal error No. 1? Believing you can dictate the tenor of your media coverage by telling members of the press what to write. Fatal error No. 2? Denying the obvious. ZapMe!
clearly derives its revenue from its advertising partners. And its attempts to position itself as anything other than an in-school marketing company succeed only in portraying
ZapMe! as sneaky and predatory.
But wait, the PR mess gets worse. Ralph Nader was quoted in a recent article in U.S. News & World Report, calling the ZapMe! model a "Trojan horse." Meanwhile, kids'
advocate Gary Ruskin has accused ZapMe! of "planting computers in the schools" for corporate profit. Ouch, that zap hurts.
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