Resources for Teachers - Marketing & Consumerism

Healthy Food Web

In this lesson, students consider the role of snack foods in a healthy diet. The teacher then guides them on a tour of popular sites aimed at children, where the class identifies and classifies the advertising encountered there and looks at how the food products being advertised fit – or don’t fit – in the food groups found in the Canada Food Guide. Students then play the game Co-Co’s AdverSmarts to understand some of the techniques used by online food marketers and then create their own mock website promoting a healthy diet.

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.

Eating Under the Rainbow

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.

Kids, Alcohol and Advertising - Lesson 2: Young Drinkers

In this lesson, students learn why the alcohol industry needs replacement (new) drinkers and how it exploits the needs and desires of young people in order to foster brand loyalty.