According to a WIRED report, the data center industry is trying to win over young people as pushback against data centers grows. The nonprofit 7x24 Exchange International, which calls data centers 'mission critical infrastructure,' promotes a children's story called "What is a Data Center?" featuring a honey badger named Honey who gets a tour from a worker named Oliver. The group also organizes 'International Data Center Day,' offering schools coloring pages, crossword puzzles, and activities like 'Draw a picture of the cloud.'
Other examples from the WIRED article include the Potomac chapter of AFCOM, an industry trade group, sponsoring Memorial Day-themed flag-making kits distributed to 3,100 first graders across 37 schools in Loudoun County, Virginia. The kits came with an informational card about the data center industry's positive economic impact. WIRED's tally also found that at least eleven companies and industry groups have hosted student field trips to data centers since 2025, including Sabey's tours for Washington high schoolers and Amazon's field trip to its Arlington, Virginia, Skills Center.
The article notes that industries with public image problems have long brought their messages into schools. Alex Molnar, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, told WIRED that fast food, tobacco, and oil and gas companies have done this for over a century. He described the data center industry's classroom outreach as 'corporate propaganda,' adding that he doesn't understand what a third grader would get out of visiting a data center.