Open House Ads

[editor's note: some of these open houses were postponed because of the storm.  See school websites for more info]

Anyone reading Jewish newspapers like the Jewish Week, Jewish Press or Jewish Standard has seen a flood of expensive advertisements put in by the local schools to attract people to their upcoming open houses.  2 weeks ago the Jewish Standard had an ad like the one above that had all of the open houses listed together in one ad.  I thought it was a great idea that the schools would consolidate their advertising costs to save money, similar to the way I suggested back in December in a post title Marketing Expenses.  Unfortunately when I turned the page there was a half-page color ad for Moriah.  The next page had a half-page ad for BPY.  So instead of the combined ad replacing the individual ads they are now in addition to them, with the costs born by Jewish Federation donors and, as always, the tuition payers.  Will the schools ever change their ways?  Is their competition with one another more important than working together for the good of the community?