Level: Grades 5 to 8

Author: This lesson has been adapted from Smoke-Free for Life, a smoking prevention curriculum supplement from the Nova Scotia Department of Health, Drug Dependency and Tobacco Control Unit.

Overview

In this lesson, students explore their beliefs and values about independence – and how cigarette advertising exploits peoples’ desires for greater freedom. Students identify the activities, lifestyles and role models that define the “independent” man and woman in our society. They then analyze ads that associate smoking with images of independence.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

• an understanding of the marketing strategies used by the tobacco industry in order to sell cigarettes
• an understanding of how the tobacco industry capitalizes on the needs of young people for independence and freedom, as a means of marketing cigarettes to them
• an awareness of how kids respond to these strategies

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) is available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.