Level(s): Grades 8 - 12

Length: 30 minutes

Overview:

This lesson helps teens become active consumers by encouraging them to 'talk back' to advertisers when they have concerns.

Learning Outcomes:

Students demonstrate:

• an understanding of the importance of being active consumers through 'talking back' to advertisers and voicing their concerns and comments
• an appreciation of the power consumers have to influence advertisers

Preparation and Materials

• photocopies of the student handout How and When to Talk Back

The Lesson

We don't have to sit back and accept all of the messages the media (especially advertising) feeds us. We can "talk back" and voice our opinions. Ask students:

• do you think that talking back to advertisers can make a difference?
• can anyone think of examples where consumer activism lead to changes in company policy or advertising? (In 1999 Calvin Klein ads were pulled because consumers complained they sexualized children; Camel cigarettes stopped using the 'Joe Camel' character in advertisements due to consumer complaints that it targeted kids; JC Penny chose to stop selling children's T-shirts featuring Budweiser's "Whassup!" slogan when parents began an e-mail campaign.)

Activity

As a group, brainstorm all the ways your students can "talk back" to the media, to advertisers and to corporations. Tell students to consider ideas for action that are both local and global in scope. Some ideas might include the following:

• To raise awareness about consumerism, organize a school-wide "Buy Nothing Day" campaign. (The Adbusters Web site has lots of good ideas)
• Use e-mail or create a Web site to begin a grassroots campaign to raise awareness and encourage action on a particular issue. (Because of sensitivities about spam, students should plan e-mail campaigns very carefully. Correspondence should be phrased in a logical, unemotional manner and should be based on factual evidence. Organizations and individuals chosen to forward the message to should also be carefully selected.)
• Put some spoof ads up in the hallways (with permission).
• Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper.
• Call a TV station, radio station, or newspaper. Tell them you have a story idea (a product boycott, a group of friends with an opinion about something).
• Write a letter to a TV station, radio station, newspaper or magazine that has aired an advertisement that you have an opinion about.

Distribute How and When to Talk Back handout to students:

• Review and discuss together

Using the How and When to Talk Back handout as reference, have students write a sample letter to a company (it can be a real or imagined scenario). Students who opt to create an e-mail campaign should include a 'plan of action' outlining which groups or individuals their correspondence would be sent to and why they have been chosen.

Evaluation

• Student letters

Extension Activity

For students who have chosen real issues, have them mail their letters and report back to class on the company's response to their correspondence.

This lesson has been adapted from Seeing Beyond the Glam, a peer education workshop from the Expecting Respect Peer Education Program. The original workshop is designed for secondary students who want to conduct workshops with other students about advertising and its impact on teenagers. Adapted with permission.

For more information about the Expecting Respect Peer Education Program program or to obtain a copy of Seeing Beyond the Glam, e-mail sthompson@mcd.gov.ab.ca