Image Gap - Lesson
This lesson helps students understand how self-image can influence lifestyle choices.
Mirror Image - Lesson
In this lesson, students analyze their own body image and consider what they wish they could change.
Thinking Like a Tobacco Company: Grades 7-9 - Lesson
In this lesson, students learn how the tobacco industry targets the needs, wishes and desires of young people in order to sell cigarettes.
Truth or Money - Lesson
In this lesson, students explore how advertising leverage can lead to censorship of information about public health issues.
Gender and Tobacco - Lesson
In this lesson, students explore gender-related influences on smoking.
Tobacco Labels
In this lesson, students debate the effectiveness of health warning labels on tobacco products.
Facing the Music
I feel like such an old lady when I’m listening to the radio sometimes. When I’m in the car with my husband we often find ourselves having the I Can’t Believe What Kids Are Listening to These Days conversation, one that often ends with me hitting the OFF button in disgust.
Summertime and the screens are easy
I am lucky enough to work from home and have a flexible work schedule, so my kids have always been stay-at-home kids in the summer. They have some daily chores and other special work to do over the summer, but in general they have a lot of free time on their hands.
Viral marketing alert
Ads like the one above have been appearing in public transit systems in Ottawa, Toronto and other Ontario cities over the last month, supposedly promoting a drug called “Obay” which prevents teenagers from having their own thoughts, hopes and dreams. It's a classic example of viral marketing: an ad campaign that doesn't actually name the product or service being promoted, but rather tries to get people talking about it in the hopes that when the product is finally unveiled the effect will be greater than a traditional ad campaign could have managed.
Tobacco, alcohol and cannabis
“Advertising has always sold anxiety, and it certainly sells anxiety to the young. It’s always telling them they’re losers unless they’re cool.” (Mark Crispin Miller, The Merchants of Cool, 2000)