Here is my VoiceThread regarding cigarette advertisements. These ads were chosen because they demonstrate the way one product can be advertised in many ways, and show a change in society values.
For my lesson plan, I would have my students talk about advertisement as propaganda for consumerism. First I would have students brainstorm where and when they see adverts. They would then keep a daily journal of ads, keeping in mind as to what they were doing when they saw the ads. We would particularly focus on the advertisements they see online, focusing on their social networks. Hopefully they will notice how some of the side ads on Facebook are geared towards them specifically. While this is going on, we would read M. T. Anderson's novel, Feed. I would then have students write a paper about any similarities or differences they see in the ads on "the feed" versus their daily lives.
As I was reading this I had a knee-jerk, "but what about all those ads on FB that have nothing to do with anything they'd want?"...
ReplyDeleteand then you addressed it, lawl. I think the HUGE slew of ads we find (which are supposedly "customized to the user") on twitter, FB, review sites, et al are even more telling of marketing and its attempted effects on us than anything, I love how you included the beginning of that there.
The key is "propaganda for consumerism", but I'd go even further: have the students ask where that comes from? Follow money trails and see where they lead. Who is feeding those companies and where else do their monetary efforts go?
This, of course, would lead you to a huge can of evil worms in lobbyism...