|
|
|
|
|
Deconstructing
Cigarette Ads in a Counter Advertising Workshop
©2004
Frank Baker,
media educator
|
 |
|
BACKGROUND
Teachers, this activity is
perfect for language arts, health and media
literacy (read about the key concepts of media literacy by clicking the link) First, students analyze advertising found
in magazines for cigarettes. In most cases, your students probably never paid any attention to these ads before. This activity is
designed to introduce these ads as unique, persuasive messages, some of which are aimed directly at them, via the magazines
they read! During this activity, students will be instructed to look deeper, into what we call "sub-text," to
identify what else might be said in the ad, (i.e. smoking is cool, relaxing, etc) and what is NOT said (i.e. smoking causes cancer, bad
breath, yellow teeth, etc).
Secondly, this is a production activity: students will produce their own ad, after they've learned
some of the more popular persuasion techniques and after they've been introduced to the concept of
"counter-advertising." In counter-advertising, we poke fun at ads by
creating parodies. (NOTE to teachers: click on the COUNTER AD EXAMPLES link in
the left hand column for plenty of examples) There is some published research that says exposing
students to
counter advertising is an effective way to change their attitudes about smoking,
and how they are targets of the tobacco industry.
Site Updated on:
02/12/2009
|
|
