Spotlight on Ads

Theme: Marketing

Grade: 6-11

Introduction

How many times have you seen and advertisement and been influenced by it? Do you believe that all advertisements are telling you the truth? Do you think that you could be vulnerable to the ploys of advertising agents?

Advertisements are designed to dazzle you and it is more than likely that they succeedm, as they do with everyone else. That is why companies pay a lto fo money for advertising campaigns. Do you think that they want to achieve anything but persuade you to buy more products?

Task

Because you have a reputation for producing fine web sites the Consumer Council of South Africa has commissioned you to produce a web site that will educate the consumer about the truth of South African advertising (and the lack of it).

It is your task to research the common strategies for attracting consumers to products through advertising and to use real South African advertisements to illustrate these strategies. You should be careful to not make this website an attack on advertisers, but rather provide an analytical view of common advertising strategies, with the emphasis on educating the public. Remember to apply copyright laws and fair use principles to your work.

Your team will collectively be responsible for the web site design. Each member will have to produce specific content - responsibility for ethical journalism lies with each content producer, but the team members should monitor each other on this issue.

Process

For this assignment, you will work in teams of four and you will divide your task into roles as follows (click on each role for more information):

1. NBC Forum representative
2. Advertising agent
3. Teen Consumer Council representative
4. Gender studies consultant

Resources

Assessment

Conclusion

You have been challenged to analyse advertisements from a number of perspectives within your group. In the process you have been able to produce useful and enlightening content on a web site for a wider audience. You have made a contribution to consumer education and gained insight from a marketing perspective.