Final+Culminating+Activity

**Activity 1**
Read the following information on target audiences, persuasive advertising techniques, and implicit and explicit messages. When you are finished reading, view the presentation to help reinforce how advertising uses various techniques and messages.

The Who of Advertising
There are many tricks to successful advertising. One of the most important is to advertise to the right target audience. If you think about it, why would someone advertise pampers on Much Music, where the vast majority of viewers are not too preoccupied with diapering their children because most of them don’t yet have children? If a diaper company advertised on an afternoon soap opera though, there would likely be a number of stay-at-home mothers who have babies and toddlers. It is very important for people writing ads to think about their target audience.

Target Audience
Advertisers target certain audiences with their ads. For them, people fall into certain categories according to:
 * age, gender, social class, interests, and education. ||

More Than One Target
Some ads, like those for milk, target more than one audience. Try this. Look at a magazine that you don’t normally read. Flip through the pages and notice the types of advertisements the magazine includes in its pages. Can you tell who the target audience is from the ads? You may not know exactly, but you will get a rough idea.
 * For example, mothers of small babies, teenagers with growing bones, older people concerned with keeping their bones strong. ||

As consumers of advertising, it is important for us to understand the different ways in which ads are trying to persuade us to buy the product being advertised. Almost everyone exists with a balance between logic and emotion. The logical side of your brain looks at facts while the emotional side is driven by desire and fear. Advertisers know this and use this information to help convince you to buy their products.
 * The How of Advertising**

Explicit information is directly stated information, or in other words, one can find a direct reference to it in the media text. An example of this occurs in automobile ads that claim their car will go from 0-60 in 4.3 seconds. It’s direct and deals with factual information. Implicit information, however, is implied; meaning the information is indirectly stated and the readers/viewers must connect two or more ideas in their heads to understand the information. For example, some male cologne ads lately have implied that if you wear their product, women will lose their minds and chase you. Is it true? Probably not. The real question is whether or not you will buy their product.
 * Implicit and Explicit Messages**

Advertisers
Advertisers use Claims and Appeals as a way to convince you that their product is the one for you. Please go to Assignment 1, where you will see the definitions of the various Claims and Appeals and be asked to find some examples. You should then return here to finish the content section. It is important to be able to recognize the implicit messages that are bombarding us. We need to decipher and dissect the truth in advertising. Becoming skeptical observers of advertisements is a necessary skill with the amount of media advertisements that we encounter everyday.

**Assignment 1**
Download [|Unit 4 Work Sheet 1] It lists the definitions of various Claims and Appeals, and you are to provide an example in each of the blanks provided. When finished post to the Glossary section of your blog.
 * Complete the following assignment and post to your blog.**

__Journal__

 * Complete the following assignment and post to your blog.**

Your assignment for this activity is to watch television. I'm serious! You are to watch television for one hour (that'll be hard to do, eh?), and pay close attention to the commercials. Choose three commercials to examine. You will need to compose a journal response critiquing each of the commercials. Be sure to identify the following aspects of the commercial:
 * 1) Product or service being advertised
 * 2) Type of persuasive device used.
 * 3) Identify the explicit messages presented
 * 4) Identify and explain the implicit messages presented
 * 5) Do you think the commercial was effective? Is there anything you would change about the commercial to make it even more effective?
 * 6) Would you buy the product based on the commercial?

**Activity 2**
This activity uses the information you learned in the previous activity (Unit 4, Activity 2 - Advertising: Implicit and Explicit Messages). Remember that you should be looking for these aspects of advertising: Everyone has an opinion and everyone has seen ads. I will show you a series of TV commercials. Choose two of them - the best ad and the worst - and analyse their effectiveness based on:
 * * Target Audience
 * Claims and Appeals such as
 * Product Superiority
 * Test Results
 * Product Benefit
 * Product Reliability
 * Weasel Words
 * You Deserve it
 * Love
 * Image
 * Youth
 * Success
 * One of the Crowd
 * Security
 * Family
 * Patriotism
 * Implicit and explicit messages ||
 * the Assignment 1 Work Sheet
 * the journal you wrote in Assignment 2

Be prepared to defend your opinions.

Here are some ideas to help you prepare for the discussion:

 * Re-read what you wrote in your journal and think about aspects of the advertisements that bothered you
 * Think about whether you would be influenced by such an ad
 * Decide which ad was most effective at getting its message across to the public
 * If you are female, think about whether males would be more influenced, or if you are male, think about whether females would be more influenced
 * Would any of those ads appeal to your parents' generation? Which ones? Why or why not?

__Journal__
Relate your contribution to the discussion we had in Activity 2. Tell which which ad worked best and then which ad was the least effective. Keep in mind how the target audience would react to the ad and how effective this is for the sale of the product.Try to convince others that your judgment is right. Be sure to include your reasons and attempt to challenge the reasons given by others. Keep in mind that not all consumers are the same different ads will appeal to different people.

As part of this assignment you must also comment on **two** other students' blog. The comments must:

a) **agree** or **disagree** with the original post b) **contain 3 reasons** **why** you agree or disgree c) refer specifically to **both** the original post **and** the commercial

Remember to maintain respect for the people and opinions you are commenting on.

Activity 3
One thing that people don’t like to acknowledge is the extent to which something influences them. When it comes to media, we like to think that although many messages bombard us on a daily basis, we are still able to make up our own minds in a rational and intelligent manner. Why then don’t we all just shave our heads, wear bland but durable cotton outfits, and just buy what we need to survive?

This next assignment will give you an opportunity to observe the amount of time you spend consuming media - watching TV, listening to radio, listening to CDs, surfing the net, reading books and magazines, watching movies, and many other forms of media. The activity also encourages you to reflect on your media consumption habits.

**Assignment 4**

 * Complete the following assignment and post to the Reading log section of your blog.**

__Media Log Part 1__
Download the [|Medialog.docx]. Follow the instructions below to record your media consumption.

Estimate the total number of hours that you will spend in the next 48 hours consuming the media mentioned in the Media Consumption Log. Record your estimates in the middle column. During the next 48 hours, record, in the column on the right, the actual number of hours you spend consuming each medium. Be sure to round your answers to the nearest hour. Note: Record a zero for those media that you do not consume over the next 48 hours.

__Journal__

 * Complete the following assignment and post to the Reading log section of your blog.**

Use the following questions and the research you have just completed on your media consumption habits to guide your Media Reflection journal:
 * Did you estimate more or less than your actual amount of media consumption? Why do you think this happened?
 * Did any of your statistics and data surprise you? If some statistics surprised you, choose the one that surprised you most and explain why. If none of the statistics surprised you, explain why.
 * How important is media to your everyday life?
 * How would your day change without the consumption of any electronic media whatsoever? (3 specific ways)
 * How do you become familiar with any new type of medium? In other words, what strategies do you use to become familiar with a new form of media (For example, how did you learn to text message? Chat online? Etc.)

Activity 4
"The medium is the message," said Marshall McLuhan, a famous Canadian who researched communications. What he meant is that there are many different ways to communicate a message, and the method or means that you use to communicate makes a difference. For instance, radio is a medium because it is a way to communicate, but radio itself has unique characteristics that have an effect on how people who use the medium can communicate. On location reporting of the devastation of a tornado isnt as powerful on the radio as it is on television, but talk radio just makes sense. The Internet carries messages, but in a way it IS the message since people can create their own experience and their own path online.

The word "medium" means ONE method. It sounds very much like the word "media" which means MORE THAN ONE method. For instance, TV, Internet, public speaking, newspaper articles, and radio are different media that a politician could use to speak to citizens.

Medium is a singular word, and media is the plural of medium.

Any advertisement that we see or hear in our everyday life as we travel, walk, or just watch, is called "Environment Text." You might be surprised to realize how many ads are coming your way each and every day.

Assignment 6

 * Complete the following assignment and post to the Reading log section of your blog.**

__Media Log Part 2__
For the next 24 hours, watch for advertisements everywhere and at every time. Take a walk to your favourite store, or drive to a friend's house, stroll at the mall, or ride the bus to a different part of town. What do you see? Look hard, look up, look down, look everywhere. Be sure to check all the places listed below: Record your observations in this [|media advertisement log].
 * * billboards
 * magazines
 * TV
 * Internet
 * Cell phones
 * MP3 players
 * T-shirts
 * radio
 * newspapers
 * CD and DVD covers
 * flyers and posters
 * cereal boxes
 * busses, trucks, and vans
 * neon signs on buildings ||

You'll need to think carefully as you consider the time when you experienced (saw, heard, felt) the ad. Be sure to note the specific product or service that was advertised. Where was it advertised? For instance, did you see it on TV, or on the side of a city bus zooming past while you walked on the sidewalk, or was it an ad on someone's t-shirt? View [|Amy's Media Advertisement Log] (available in pdf format). Note the description of each ad that was experienced. Note also the rating of each ad on a scale of 1 to 10.

Download [|blank media advertisement log] chart. You can print it so you can take it with you on your Ad Walk.

Submit your completed Media Log. Use the following [|media advertisement checklist] to make certain you've completed all the requirements.

**Activity 5**
Naturally, human beings seem to identify with certain groups of people. This may be because of race, sex, education, culture, religion, etc. But sometimes, the media uses stereotypes of these groups. These stereotypes tend to bring with them a negative image of the group or person being stereotyped. How many times have you felt that someone you don’t even know has judged you in a negative light for the simple reason that you’re young? How does it make you feel when that happens? Stereotyping often hinders individual differences and freedom. Ethnic and Visible Minorities Aboriginal People Girls and Women Men and Masculinity Gays and Lesbians Whiteness and White Privilege ||
 * || Please read the following article on Media Stereotyping from the Media Awareness Network and create a mindmap in Inspiration of the main ideas contain in the article. Don't forget to include the information and ideas included in the following subheading of the article.

__Reflective Journal Entry__

 * Complete the following assignment and post to the Reading log section of your blog.**

Using the information about six of the major ways the media stereotypes groups of people, think about and respond to the following questions in your journal. Use complete sentence form for all responses except #1 and #2. These may be answered in point form. Copy these questions into your blog to form the beginning of your journal entry.


 * # List and describe examples from your own life where you (or someone you know) have been stereotyped.
 * 1) List examples from recent events in the news in which various races and/or cultures have been stereotyped.
 * 2) Comment on the effects that stereotyping has on the individual as well as society.
 * 3) Describe what the media considers the ideal male.
 * 4) Describe what the media considers the ideal female.
 * 5) What happens, in our society, to those who do not "fit the mold"?
 * 6) What steps can be taken, and by whom, to change this issue? ||

Activity 6
Advertisers use a variety of techniques to sell their products. One way to get a lot of information across in a small amount of space is to use a pamphlet. You have learned about some of the kinds of language and images advertisers use to grab consumers' attention. Your created pamphlet will help you grab the reader's attention and hold it! Be sure to use the layout template that is provided in this assignment. This layout is used in pamphlets because it influences the order in which readers see the words and images. It also adds emphasis to certain parts.


 * Complete the following assignment and post my class folder on the X drive.**


 * 1) Go to "New" in MicroSoft Word.
 * 2) Click on Brochures in the Templates list in the left hand sidebar.
 * 3) Browse through the various Brochure templates and select one which is appropriate to this task.
 * 4) Create a pamphlet in which you convey the important information you have learned in this unit.
 * 5) Save your brochure as YOURLASTNAME_U4A8
 * 6) Submit your completed pamphlet to your teacher for feedback and revisions.

Assignment 9
In this assignment you will reflect on what you have learned in Unit 4. The following multimedia activity will help you prepare for and complete your reflection.


 * Submit the "Looking Back” activity for Unit 4 to your teacher.**

Click [|here] for the Unit 4 "Looking Back” worksheet!