Media students learn best when they interact with the media they study.  Here is a unit centred around an environmental field study - a visit to a commercial centre - which challenges students to look at those images and texts which bathe them in commercial messages. The purpose of the experience is to raise students' critical awareness of this form of advertising that is more subtle than traditional print and television commercials - this is the world of immersion branding. The unit can be adapted to elementary students by modifying the questions to suit the capabilities of the students. 

Have the school bus drop you and your students off at a commercial centre which provides high profile businesses that also target your students as consumers - this may be a major mall, or, if you are in Toronto, a downtown area such as Bloor and Bay, or Eaton Centre.

Provide each student with a worksheet package, so that they can make notes on the spot. They can visit as many stores as they wish, but should make detailed notes on at least 3 of them.  (We went to Bloor Street in Toronto, and the Nike flagship store was one of the mandatory visits: it is a wonderful example of a total environment which integrates an ideology of achievement with the product).

Here are some examples of environmental factors students can note. In each case, they should attempt to explain the effects of these elements, as well as how they reflect the target consumer.

• window display: positions of, and types of, mannequins, clothing (how does it represent the company's image)
  
• use of architectural elements such as: colour; light; number of floors; materials (wood, metal, etc); line (straight lines, curves, angles, etc); objects (furniture; flowers, accessories, etc); layout (stairways, aisles, rack placement, cash desk placement, etc).
  
• use of visual media (photos, logos, video, written text, etc).
  
• placement & display of merchandise (matched by colour?; matched by style?; matched by size?, matched by purpose? easily accessible or hard to reach? placed by cost? what merchandise is placed at the entrance, as opposed to that which is placed at the farthest end of the store?).
  
• amount of, and placement of, empty space. What is the effect of this?
  
• music: what music? What feelings or lifestyle does it evoke? Can you link this choice of music to the target consumer? How does the presence of music allow the store to link with popular culture?
  
• interactive elements: way(s) that you are encouraged to become part of the culture of this company. [Nike has many hands-on gadgets]
  
• sales associates: how does their appearance relate with the overall environment? is their attitude an appropriate part of the 'culture' of this store, and does it encourage consumer participation?
  
• ideology: through what strategies are values embedded in the environment, and thus in the product? [e.g., Roots/outdoors; Body Shop/global and environmental concerns]
  
• targeted consumer: try to describe the average consumer of this store, based on all the above observations - include age, income, lifestyle, musical tastes, gender, race, religion

I asked the students to write up summary questions at home, after completing their on-site notes. Questions dealt with:

• comparing and evaluating stores in terms of ways that their environments target consumers.
  
• 'global culture' or style; define it; where do we find it, or not find it in commercial environments?
  
• in what respect are we entering a "whole environment" [and an ad] when we enter a high-profile clothing store?
  
• which environmental element, or combination of elements, actually 'sells' the merchandise? Explain why environment might be as significant as merchandise.
  
• why would our market culture need to provide 'environments' to its potential consumers, as opposed to just hanging out the merchandise?
  
• what store most appealed? Explain why. How do you, as an individual, 'fit' the store's clothing and attitude?

Two major questions suitable for response or analytical essays:

• How much of youth culture is made by youth themselves, for themselves, and how much is marketed and sold to them by corporations? In other words, what is the relationship between the culture that youth have constructed for themselves, and the culture that has been constructed by others to keep them consuming? Do youth have strategies of behaving like consumers, while at the same time staying independent of persuasive marketing and creating their own culture?
  
• Reflect on the following quote, using evidence from your experience: "One of the effects of branding is to make you feel as if you are part of a community." (- Phil Knight, CEO, Nike Corporation)
  

An excellent additional resource to this lesson is the NFB video All the Right Stuff.