Design This

Facilitators: Claudia Ellis, Jasmine Haynes, and Allison Herrington

Overview:
This unit will cover advertising and how advertising affects our lives. The goal of this unit is to provide students with meaningful learning experiences that will challenge them and deepen their knowledge of the world around them and how advertising impacts their lives.

Guiding Questions:
• How are people affected by advertising?
• What types of advertising are the most effective?
• If advertising never evolved, how would that affect consumers today?

Focusing Questions:
Core:
• What is advertising?
• What are the different types of advertising?

Connections:
• How does advertising correlate with business and marketing?
• How does an object’s physical appearance affect its appeal to customers?
• How does advertising affect individual decision making.

Practice:
• What is a food stylist?
• What are photographers’ roles in advertising?
• What types of jobs involve advertising?

Identity:
• How is my life affected by advertising?
• How do I respond to different types of advertising?
• How do you respond to marketing geared towards your age group?

Principles and Generalizations:
• Advertising affects the demand of product consumption.
• Advertising affects the types of merchandise purchased by various consumer groups.
• Advertising targets various audiences.
• Advertising effects consumer spending.

Dispositions: Self-reflection, history, hands-on experiences, connecting lessons to the bigger picture

Resources/Websites:
http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/
http://www.bam.gov/sub_yourlife/yourlife_addecoder.html
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson158.shtml
http://nutritionandmedia.org/page17/page10/page10.html
http://Foodesigns.com

Learning Experiences

Introduction Activity
The teacher will show students “Design your own cereal box” from http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks .
The students will design or recreate an item using poster board or cardboard and other art supplies, i.e. cereal box, shoe box, etc. Students will choose color, design, logo, slogans, etc based on prior knowledge.

Types of Advertisement
The unit will begin with a PowerPoint on the different types of advertising. These main types of advertising include: print (newspaper, magazine, brochures, fliers), outdoor (billboards, kiosks, tradeshows and events), broadcast (television, radio, internet), covert (advertising in movies), and celebrity advertising. The PowerPoint will include short descriptions and examples of each type. The students will be asked to discuss and add their own ideas and examples of advertising they have seen or experienced. The students will also be asked how they think advertising affects their lives.

Food Stylist
The teachers will ask if students if they have ever seen commercials or pictures of food for different types of restaurants. The students will discuss whether they think real food is used for these pictures and commercials and if the food that they get ever looks like the pictures. The students will then watch a few short videos about food styling and food photography. The students will discuss food styling and what types of materials may be used to make the different types of food. The students will then be given the opportunity to make their own non-edible ice cream just like the food stylists. The students will follow the basic recipe to make the product. The students will be allowed to choose what kind of container and toppings they would like to use. They will choose based on what they think would be the most appealing. During the activity, the teacher and students will discuss why it is important to make the food appealing and how it helps sell the items.

Food Photography
The teacher will ask the students what a photographer does and what experiences they have had with professional photographers. The teacher will then talk about what part photographers play in food styling. The students will then have the opportunity to take pictures of their ice cream creations. The students will decide how to position their ice cream, what type of background to use, what type of other props to use, etc. The pictures will then be loaded on the computer and the students will vote on the most appealing pictures.

Taste Test
Before the activity, the teachers will set up several testing stations. Each station will include two numbered containers. Each container will include food items that look similar but one will be a name brand product and one will be a generic brand product.
The teacher and students will discuss the difference between name brand items and generic items, how they are presented and how they are sold at different prices. The students as a whole will come up with a group of questions that they would ask a person before a taste test. Some example questions might include: Which item is the most colorful?, Which item looks most appealing?, Which item do you think cost the most to make?, Which do you think is the real brand and which is generic?, etc. The students will be given a clipboard and copy the questions to be answered. The students will carry their clipboards to each station and answer the questions about each item. The results will then be tallied and revealed to the class along with which item was the real brand and which was generic. After the activity, the teacher and students will discuss the role that real and generic brands play in the whole scheme of advertising and the pricing of items to sell.

Item placement on store shelves
The students will listen to a guest speaker which is a store manager (if possible). The manager will explain the importance of item placement on stores shelves. The manager will also discuss the reasoning behind item placement and explain examples that relate to the students. The students will then be allowed to ask questions. (If a guest speaker is not available, then the students will be allowed to research the philosophy behind shelf designs and displays in stores). The students will be asked to pretend they are a store manager or store display designer. The students will then draw/design their items on a large pretend store shelf. (The teacher should use butcher paper to draw out a line of shelves and place it on the wall before the activity begins.) The students will also be asked to give their reason and marketing strategy behind each item placement.

Creating Advertisement
The students will use the knowledge they have learned to create their own advertisement. The students will market an item that would normally be geared toward their age group to another target group. The students will then present their products to the rest of the group. The students will attempt to guess what target group the advertisement is for. The students will be provided with the resources they need to create their advertisement.

Culminating Activity
The students display their ice cream creations and photos and the other products they have created throughout the day. The students will then direct the parents through the taste testing stations. The parents will select which item they believe to be the name brand vs. generic. The results will be revealed at the end of the tasted testing activity. There will also be discussion about the individuals’ selections.