MediaSmarts Tags - Online Marketing

Level(s): Grades 11 - 12

Author: MediaSmarts

Overview

To make students aware of the ways in which male violence is used and promoted in advertising.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

Level(s): Grades 9 to 10

Author: MediaSmarts

Production of this lesson has been made possible through a financial contribution from Health Canada.

Overview

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. 

Parents and older siblings can take preschoolers on the Internet, visit websites and play online games. At this age, adults have an important role to play in teaching safe Internet use and monitoring their children's reactions to online material.

This interactive online module takes students through a CyberTour of twelve mock websites to test their savvy surfing skills. 

It includes a 20-question online quiz that provides additional food for thought about the Web issues that the brother and sister team Josie and Joseph Cool encounter.

In the early days of the Internet, some writers predicted that it would bring about a "frictionless economy" – one where shopping for, buying, and even delivering purchases, would happen entirely online. In the years since, the successes of online businesses from eBay to Amazon have made a lot of this image a reality, but online commerce is far from frictionless: scams, frauds, excessive spending and shoddy or misrepresented goods all lie in wait for the unwary buyer.

This tutorial aims to teach students essential digital literacy skills through simulating their favourite online experiences. The tutorial is divided into four chapters, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of digital literacy: researching and authenticating online information, managing privacy and reputation, dealing with online relationships and using digital media in an ethical manner.

The following section looks at the ways in which children and youth are targeted and marketed to online and the associated issues. It also provides strategies to help kids develop the media smarts they need to play – and not unwittingly pay – when they go online.

Young children are vulnerable to marketing messages as research has shown that children under age six simply don't understand the idea of advertising, and by the time they have developed the capability to recognize marketing messages they will already be accustomed to a world made up of mascots and logos.

Like all advertisers, marketers need to go to where their audience is and to this end the Internet has been a godsend because it brings their audience to them.