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| Introduction | Lesson One | Lesson Two | Lesson Three |
Advertising plays a major role in a capitalist society. It permeates everything we do, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the toothpaste we buy, and the education we receive. Advertising has become an integral part of the media, from television, to radio, to magazines, and is becoming increasingly complex and manipulative. Youth have become the largest consumer group and companies have become increasingly aggressive in targeting that population. Therefore, with the advent of media literacy in the English Language Arts curriculum we feel it is of paramount importance to help students develop a level of critical awareness that will help them become aware of the strategies employed by advertisers. It is important for students to be aware of the stereotypes that advertising perpetuates, the ways in which advertising manipulates, and the fact that image has become more important than product.
Examining advertising provides the educator with a special opportunity. We can engage with the students in the negotiation of meaning of texts that are equally present in the lives of youth and adults alike. Instead of having to encourage students to engage with literature that often seems outdated and irrelevant to their lives, we get to engage with material that is a direct and important part of their lives outside of academia. With advertising we have the opportunity to examine many different mediums for media, and we can challenge students to respond to advertising using the very mediums of the advertisers themselves. Viewing and other ways of representing become increasingly important when studying media.
This unit was created from our own ideas. There are probably many variations of the activities used here, so a time of trial and error might be appropriate to discover what works best. Have fun.
Key Stage Outcomes: (From the Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, department of Education)
Students Will:
Goals:
Materials:
Learning Activities:
I will pass out magazines that I have found with advertisements with sports heroes endorsing products, and also play a video of a few TV commercials that I have taped. Students will then do a work sheet that will help them critically analyze the relationship between sports heroes and marketing strategies (see appendix #1).
I will collect the worksheets and then read various responses to the class, leaving the author anonymous.
Evaluation:
Key Stage Outcomes: (From the Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, department of Education)
Students Will:
Goals:
Materials:
Learning Activities:
Evaluation:
Key Stage Outcomes: (From the Foundation for the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, department of Education)
Students Will:
Goals:
Materials:
Learning Activities:
Evaluation:
Sports Heroes and Marketing
The goal of this lesson is to have students critically analyze the relationship between sports heroes and marketing strategies. Students should be able to evaluate the effectiveness of sports heroes endorsing products that they use in their sport and products that they don’t. Also, students should begin to critically evaluate how the meaning of a product changes once a sports hero has endorsed the product.
I will begin this lesson by generating a discussion about sports heroes and the products they endorse. I will get students to contribute by listing on the board all the sports heroes they can think of that endorse products. From this list they should be able to see that some sports heroes advertise for products they use in their sport, and others advertise for completely unrelated products.
I will use this exercise as formative evaluation, providing feedback to the students helping them to broaden their perspectives. I will keep a record of in class assignments completed that will be a part of a participation mark.
Deconstructing Tobacco Advertising
To have students critically analyze cigarette advertising and anti-smoking campaigns and in the process realize the ideological and value messages employed by both. Students should critically assess such things as the audiences targeted by cigarette companies, the images of the good life cigarette companies associate themselves with, the discrepancy between reality and image construction in cigarette advertising, and the appropriateness of the various sports events that tobacco companies sponsor.
I will begin the lesson with a brief discussion of cigarette advertising, calling attention to such topics as target audience, image construction, and the effects of smoking on health.
I will then split the class into groups of three to five depending on class size and provide them with a question sheet (see appendix #2). They will discuss the questions and write a brief answer to each one. We will discuss the answers, calling on each group to provide at least one response.
Students will stay in their groups and will now produce a cigarette advertisement based on their knowledge and understanding from the previous exercises. The aim of the advertisement is to represent reality as closely as possible. Students can choose between various mediums for the commercial, such as tape recorder for emulating radio, video for TV, photography, drawing, painting, or computer graphics for magazine commercials. Then each group will present their commercial to the class and explain briefly why their commercial is more realistic than actual cigarette advertisements. The class will have the opportunity to ask the group questions. This lesson may span as many as four or five class periods.
I will mark only the presentation and the commercial that each group hands in. I will do this using a holistic rubric. I will use the responses to the worksheet solely as formative evaluation and a means of generating discussion and critical thinking.
To have students realize the way that automobile advertising perpetuates and reinforces gender stereotypes.
I will begin the class by naming types of vehicles and asking students to try to name the type of person that they think best suits that particular vehicle. This will lead into a brief discussion about gender stereotyping and the way that advertising can perpetuate stereotypes and gender expectations.
Then I will hand out a worksheet with four questions (see
appendix #3). I will proceed to show an automobile commercial, as many times as seems necessary. Then I will give the students ten to fifteen minutes to answer the questions on the worksheet in relation to the commercial. I will do this for three or four commercials.
As closure we will discuss each question in relation to each commercial, encouraging the students to offer their answers. I will read answers of my own that I have already prepared not as correct answers, but as my opinion.
I will use this for formative purposes mostly. However, I will record whether or not it has been completed as part of a participation mark.
