Resources for Teachers - Marketing & Consumerism

Kids, Alcohol and Advertising - Lesson 4: Interpreting Media Messages

In this lesson, students investigate the importance of branding and messaging, especially as they relate to parity products such as beer and alcohol.

Body Positive Ads

This lesson helps students understand the relationship between body image and marketing by exploring Aerie and Dove’s body positive advertising campaigns. Students begin by reading about the impact that body positive advertising campaigns have on companies, as well as on their consumers. Students will then look at body positive ads aimed towards men and read research about how there is a lack of representation in this field. They will then deconstruct a series of traditional ads compared to body positive ones and discuss how marketers target "ideal beauty" messages to both men and women and whether they are effective. Finally, students will evaluate whether body positive ads are effective in general or not through discussion.

Buy Nothing Day

In this lesson Buy Nothing Day is used as a jumping-off point to look at the role of consumerism in our lives and culture.

Favourite Sports and Athletes: Introduction to Sports Media - Lesson

This lesson develops a beginning awareness by students of how they feel towards, and respond to, different sports, and how the media represents athletics.

Marketing to Teens: Alternate Ads

In this lesson students look at less obvious methods used by advertisers to reach consumers. Students first learn about “soft sell” ads that don’t make specific claims about a product. They then consider reasons why companies choose to use them over hard sell techniques. They will then focus specifically on why various companies might choose to use soft sell techniques as subtle forms of advertising in groups.