Scholastic's "book" clubs

I read this article that Brian posted in his comments on Whitney's last blog:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/books/10scho.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=Scholastic&st=cse

It was about how 1/3 of the items sold in Scholastic's brochures were either nonbook items or books packaged with other items. That's a rather high proportion, and it was called into question whether Scholastic was misusing its book clubs to market other types of retail items in schools.

In my opinion, the strongest statement that was made in that article came from the director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. She said that these items send the wrong message to kids-- that a book alone is not enough, and that children may start choosing books by what they receive with it rather than for the book itself. I believe she's right, and it's a bit offensive to see books marketed this way. It seems, to me, the ugly side of marketing. A "we'll do anything that works" attitude. I'm also turned off by the greediness of the publisher who raked in the money from publishing Harry Potter. I mean, how much money is enough of a profit? Doesn't this publishing house make enough revenue not to have to resort to such obvious marketing tactics?

On the other hand, it does work. Kids will get excited about the stuff they'll get with the books, and it will get books into the hand of kids. But effective sales is no measure of ethics. How do we know the kids won't toss the book aside with the packaging, just to get to the "fun stuff"? It scares me to think of books being devalued this way.

It reminds me of how much things have changed since I was a child reader. I used to LOVE getting the Scholastic brochures, bringing them home to peruse through and circling all the things I wanted. I was allowed to get only one book each time, so I would use pencil and start circling all the ones I wanted. Then I'd go back through and erase the ones I had decided against until I finally left only one book circled, and then I gave it to my mother to place the order. I wonder how much stickers and posters and such would have influenced my choices? It's a hard question to answer retrospectively.