All,
All this talk of book advertising reminds me of some of my books from Brady/Simon & Schuster (all out of print), most of which were about online services, modems, or portable computing. There were always ads from CompuServe, The Source, and DELPHI (and later, GEnie and BIX), as well as companies that made modems and portable devices. No one complained, and I had no problem with it.

As was done in other books, the ads were collected in their own section at the back of the book–the best idea, I think. If, like the ads in my books, the ads in textbooks had some value-added element, I see nothing wrong with them.
–Mike

Here is an excerpt from a critical article in “The Arizona Daily Star”:

Advertising in textbooks is rife with potential pitfalls. Freeload Press’s company Web site offers assurances that companies shelling out the bucks to sponsor the free textbooks would have no influence on content. But how will students know if that promise isn’t upheld? Every publication that relies on advertising is open to similar examination. What if the advertiser objects to the content and threatens to pull its ad? At what point does the company accede to its need to make a profit?

These are valid concerns, but the opinion writer is unaware of a greater danger. He or she is endangered by the “potential pitfall” of hilarious hypocrisy. The Arizona Daily Star is supported by advertisements. For example, a large advertisement for “Qwest High-Speed Internet” was adjacent to the lacerating text. Is the opinion writer a corporate stooge for Qwest who wants everyone to read textbooks online using Qwest? I do not think so, but texts can be curiously and unintentionally self-referential. At what point does the Arizona Daily Star “accede to its need to make a profit?”

From Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

E equals mc squared, where E is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light, which is 300,00 kilometres per second, or even faster with new Comoco unleaded hi-speed gasoline! With Comoco, you can make light stand still!

From Plato’s Republic

“Polyxenes, have a Coke! Isocrates, pass the Cheesies! We debated the attribute of courage yesterday, did we not? And we saw that courage results from virtue, or having a really well-tailored suit, like an Armani…

From The History of the French Revolution

Did it ever cross Marat’s mind, in those heady days of the Directorate, that there could be a better government, a nicer government, devoted to liberty and the prosperity of the Free World? Did he envisage, while the tumbrils rumbled through the streets that one day http://www.whitehouse.gov would…

In a traditional model, the producer creates something which is then sold, on its merits, to the consumer. If the consumer doesn’t like it, or wants changes, she doesn’t buy the product and the producer is forced to change his ways. It’s a valuable dialog.

In an ad-supported model, though, the producer creates something, and then sells the eyeballs of the consumer of this thing to a third party, the advertiser. The exact merits of the produced good aren’t important, just that many people use it. It’s no longer important for the producer to attract customers, now they need to attract advertisers. Most of the time these are complimentary goals, but it’s still worth noting that the dialog has changed, and the producer’s goals have changed, and that the good and the consumer are no longer the focus. If a conflict comes between the users’ benefit and the advertisers’, an ad-supported producer will choose the advertiser.

In this situation, advertising also has another knock against it: studies have shown that children are much more susceptible to advertising than adults. The younger they are, the more they lack the ability to filter information and critically examine the claims of advertisers. College students are in less danger, true, but it still seems to me that mixing facts that we hope they absorb with advertising is a dangerous mix. Either they will see Socrates as a corporate shill or believe that PIzza Hut ads and calculus are equivalently true and useful. Giving ads the imprimatur of truth that’s inherent in a college textbook seems dangerous, especially in our current society (on a somewhat related note, the FCC is examining stations for running “fake news” releases from corporations. http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/intro)

I’m working with http://www.iChapters.com, a site that allows students to download just the textbook chapters they need starting at $1.99 or buy a full college eBook for 50% of the price of the new hard copy version. So far our feeeback has been positive. Students like buying chapters like they buy music….digital download and one off transactions.