Lesson 4: Do Advertisements Really Work?

(1 day)

 

Standards:

NCSS Individual Development & Identity

• assist learners to describe how past and present family, religion, gender, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, and other group and cultural influences contribute to the development of self

MMSD second grade Economics Standard

• Explain the use of money as a means of exchange.

 

MMSD third grade Social Studies Economics Standard

• Give examples of how economic resources in the home, school, and community are limited (scarcity) and how people must make choices about how to use these resources.

 

MMSD third grade Social Studies Behavioral Science Standard

• Explain how the media may influence behaviors, opinions, and decisions.

 

 

Objectives:

Students will decide how to use their limited amount of money to buy an afternoon snack.

Students will count, record and analyze data on classmate snack selection.

Students will respond to three questions on how advertisements affect people�s distinction between wants and needs.

 

Materials:

Signs promoting Fruit Loop cereal (or another snack item of your choice) to post around the room

Fruit Loop commercial

Fake money for class to use to buy an afternoon snack

Apples

Bananas

Graham Crackers

Mini boxes of Fruit Loop cereal

 

Procedures:

Opening-

This lesson is designed to simulate how effective constant exposure to advertisements can be.� This lesson will be done in parts throughout the day.�

• When the class walks in in the morning have signs up promoting Fruit Loop cereal by a sign you use during your daily meeting.� No need to reference it, just make sure kids can see it.� Every 45 minutes either say something about Fruit Loops or sneakily put the Fruit Loop sign somewhere else in the room that kids can see it, like near the clock or the bathroom pass.� Before lunch tell them that you wish you had Fruit Loops to eat, what do they want to eat?
• Once they get back, during their silent reading and journal time explain that we are going to talk about ads again today and play a Fruit Loop cereal commercial. �
• Now hand each child five (fake) $1 and tell them that while they are writing in their journals about whether or not they think advertising works I will be calling two or three students up to the front of the room to go shopping for an afternoon snack.� Can anyone remind me of how money works?� What do we do with it?� (Looking for give money to someone in exchange for something else).�
• They have five dollars to spend at the store and have to pay the cashier, me, the right amount of money in exchange for the snack of their choice.� If they choose not to use all $5 they can save their money to buy another snack tomorrow.�
• Have four types of food available: an apple for $2, a banana for $3, Graham Crackers for $4 and mini boxes of Fruit Loop cereal for $5.
• �Each student makes their choice(s), pays and returns to continue working in their journal and then reading from their book box.� Once everyone has made their choice put books, journals away and begin.
• Activity:
• If you bought an apple stand up and move to this corner.
• If you bought a banana move to this corner.
• If you bought Graham Crackers move to this corner
• If you bought Fruit Loops move to this corner.

Have students count and record classroom results on the board.

 

• Return to seats and explain that we talked about what advertisements do � try to sell a product/service, we talked about strategies advertisements use to try to sell us their product and we talked about how advertisers sell their advertisements to televisions networks/stations to make sure that we see them.� Today we are talking about if these advertisements really work.� Analyze class data.�
• Did more people choose an apple, banana, Graham Cracker or Fruit Loops.� Why do you think that is?
• What were some factors that influenced your snack decision? (talk about the cost of snack, personal taste, advertising in room)

What happened when you saw the box of Fruit Loops?� How did the signs around the room, the comment I made before lunch and the commercial we watched when we got back from lunch do?� Did you want the product, Fruit Loops, more or did the advertising not really affect you?

 

You see thousands of ads a day that are for all sorts of products and services.� How do you think what happened in the classroom relates to the way you see ads outside of school?�

• Most people have a limited amount of money that they can spend and that played a role in how many of you chose a snack today too.� The Fruit Loop ads may have made you want the product but you knew you only had a limited amount of money you could spend.� If you chose to get an apple today that meant that you could buy another apple or a banana tomorrow for snack but if you chose to buy the Graham Crackers or the Fruit Loops you would not get to buy a snack tomorrow because you would not have enough money.� Advertisers know that most people have a specific amount of money they can spend and they have to make choices on how and when to spend their money.� This means that they have to try to persuade you to choose to buy their product which is why they use the strategies we learned about and pay their own money to make sure that their ads are seen by lots of people.�

Closing-Now that we did this experiment I want you to take out your journals one more time and answer these questions.� We have 15 minutes for you to either write your thoughts or draw pictures with a caption explaining your drawing.

 

How does advertising influence what we want to buy?

How does advertising affect YOU?

Why do we need to know the difference between what we want and what we need?

 

Assessments:

Informal-

Teacher observes if students are actively noticing advertisements for Fruit Loops throughout the morning.

Student responses and participation in discussion on the link between people�s resources and persuasive ads.

 

Formal-

Chart data collection

Journal entires

*Do advertisements work (done before classroom experiment)

*Responses to three questions