I've written about child literacy and junk food before with the young reader marketing partnerships and cause-washing of
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Arby's. Today's example comes from California Public Libraries and their promotion of In-N-Out's "
Cover to Cover Club"
Here are the program's details as described by the Saratoga Springs Public Library
For every 5 library books your kid reads, they'll receive a coupon good for an "
achievement award".
The award?
An In-N-Out hamburger or cheeseburger (limit 3 per child apparently)
Kids today have no shortage of opportunities to eat fast food. Should public libraries be encouraging, enabling, and permitting more? I'd also love to know if this initiative actually increases library foot traffic and books read or just rewards kids who were already reading for the love of reading with fast food?
And if city run public institutions wanted to provide some incentive for young kids to read and use libraries, how difficult would it be for them to partner with city run community centres to hand out coupons for free admissions to local public pools or with the Parks Service to hand out free day use fee coupons for a nearby State park?
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