One of my biggest disappointments with University so far is that the textbooks we are forced to buy really are not that useful. Not to mention they are outrageously expensive. I can use a computer textbook in one class for example, but probably not any others. And the chances of me using it outside of school are rather slim, considering the content gets updates so frequently. But I guess things are not as bad as they could be as Larry Borsato notes:
For the past several months, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., one of the country’s largest publishers of university textbooks, has been quietly trying to coax companies into buying advertising space in their texts.
“Reach a hard to get target group where they spend all their parents’ money,” says a McGraw-Hill brochure touting its planned ads. “Do you really think 18-24 year olds see those on-campus magazine ads? Do you really think they could miss an ad that is placed in a very well-respected textbook?”
Considering I avoid assigned readings like the plague, I for one wouldn’t be seeing the ads. Seriously though, I don’t think advertisements have any place in a textbook. And as soon as the ads make it into the books, the flood gates are open. Consider a business textbook that features advertising by a company like McDonalds. What are the chances that the publishing company will use an example of McDonalds’ business in their textbook that doesn’t make the fast food chain look good? Especially if the publishing companies come to rely on ad dollars.
Everything about the idea spells bad news to me. Larry says that “if they want to give the textbooks to students for free then that’s fine. But there’s no way that I’m paying $100 for a textbook full of ads, especially one the school forces me to buy.” I agree for the most part, I’d put up with advertising in order to get the books for free, but I don’t think the integrity of a textbook can be protected when money starts exchanging hands for page space.
So on the off chance that I actually choose to read my textbook, I’d rather know that what I am reading is there because the author thought it was important, not because advertising dollars paid for it to be written.
Read: Toronto Star
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