Are they a public company? Wonder if they can be D'Ancona'd? Or better, rake them for a profit, and use said profit on a war to defeat them, a'la Danneskjöld...

I agree...well not totally. I don't think advertisements belong in school, unless they're studying businesses (and wouldn't that be nice if THAT ever happened??) but with small kids in particular, as a parent I would be annoyed if my kid came home talking about toys or snacks that he saw in one of his books or tests...what does that have to do with learning..it's distracting actually. It's definitely advertising and I don't believe that someone didn't get paid to plant the products in the tests. (That's the part I agree with. lol)

the capitalist in me mulls over the implications. If Mattel, etc. were to pay for textbooks and in doing so want a big banner plastered at the school showing their products or something similar I would say-fine. As long as it doesn't disrupt the education process. BUT in texts and in tests, it doesn't make sense. How is mentioning a brand name conducive to learning or to answering test questions. Seems like a hindrance even-it's not essential information to answering a question or learning facts or concepts. someone is getting paid for adding that somewhere...