School Bus Ad Sales Picking Up in Dallas County

By Alex Copeland Wed., May 4 2011 at 12:36 PM

No, that photo above is not a scene from Morgan Spulock's latest documentary. Turns out, Dallas County Schools has teamed up with ad agency Alpha Media to stick hundreds of vinyl advertisements on the sides of their buses, generating an expected $1 million this year. As next year's budget cuts begin take shape, the Dallas Independent School District in particular is hoping to recoup as much as possible, doubling the number of buses bearing advertisements from more than 25 percent in 2010, the first year of the program, to 50 percent of its 1,200-bus fleet this year.

"We saw the crunch coming and started a couple years ago," says Susan J. Falvo,
Chief of Staff at Dallas County Schools. "You knew something had to be done. You didn't need a degree in economics to see this coming."

Some of the eight participating districts were hesitant to take part in the ad program initially, Falvo says, but ultimately agreed to take part when they saw the financial success other districts had. The agency has also left a great deal of control up to the schools: Ads featuring alcohol, tobacco, political and religious language are verboten under state law, and individual districts have the power to veto offending ads. So far, ads are fairly benign, featuring businesses such as dentists, tutors and credit agencies.

Michael Beauchamp, Alpha Media's CEO, says it's about more than just offering a cheaper way to advertise. "For the price of one billboard, you could buy 100 school bus ads," Beauchamp says. "Most of all, they're happy to put their money back into the schools."

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Linda Dill

Maybe now the Keller Parents can get involved that were made to pay in the so called "Pay to Ride" Program and get this passed so that Durham School Serivces can do advertising along with the ISD and parents will not have to pay anymore.....where they should NOT EVER had to pay for school bus service, taxes cover that.

StopDISD.org

"Most of all, they're happy to put their money back into the schools"

What DISD won't reveal is that money won't go towards education it will go to their friends in the land development buisness.

Danger, Danger Dallas ISD lies, cheats, steals and conceals all their dirty deals no newsreels to reveal so surreal.

To learn more visit www.StopDISD.org

Click on the link below to view Satire Video on DISD's Land Grab

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Gabe

Just don't let the school districts themselves be in charge of the ads: http://blogs.dallasobserver.co...

LaceyB

Nothing like offering a deal for a bail bond outta jail on a children's school bus. Go Alpha Media. So apropos!

cynical old bastard

Please explain how this works. Isn't Dallas County Schools a separate company that contracts bus service to DISD and other school districts? If Dallas County Schools receives a million dollars for advertising on the sides of buses does DISD, or any other school district, see any money or a reduction in the fees they pay for bus service? Or has Dallas County Schools been running at a loss and this will enable them to continue operating?

Mister_Mean

I thought that the buses were now being funded by a separate taxing entity for the county of Dallas (on top of the DISD, County, city etc). At least that is what I remember from my property tax statement. Seem to recall that this was "an addition' from the past legislative session.

Robert Wilonsky

I asked DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander about this earlier. As he explained it, DISD contracts with Dallas County Schools to run the buses, and DCS will split the revenue from the ad sales with the eight districts for whom DCS runs the buses. I asked him to find out how much revenue DISD stands to me; he's looking into it.

cynical old bastard

Thank you, Robert!