MediaSmarts Tags - Food Marketing

This interactive unit is designed to help kids between the ages of 5 and 8 recognize the marketing techniques used on commercial websites that target children. 

Level: Grades 1 to 3
Author: MediaSmarts

Overview

Studies have found that fast-food ads dominate children’s programming. In order to give children a perspective on the lure of snack-food advertisements, it’s important that they understand where snacks can fit into a healthy diet. Once they have an understanding of where snack food fits into their lives, they can begin to deconstruct the ads themselves.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

Level: Grades 4 to 6

Author: MediaSmarts

Level: Primary/Junior

Lesson Length: 40 minutes

Overview

This lesson introduces students to the ways in which advertising can affect their food choices. Working from television and magazine ads, students discuss the techniques used by advertisers to engage kids with products. Specifically, they assess the importance of "spokescharacters" and jingles as effective ways to build relationships with kids. As a class exercise, they create jingles and spokescharacters themselves for the foods they enjoy.

Level: Grades 5 - 7

Author: MediaSmarts

Overview

Level: Primary/Junior

Author: MediaSmarts

Level: Grades 6 to 8

Author: This lesson has been adapted from The TV Book: Talking Back to Your TV, by Shelagh Wallace, Annick Press (Toronto, Canada), 1996, and accompanying activities written by Chris Worsnop.

Overview

Level: Grades 7 to 10

Author: MediaSmarts

Overview