Apparently the 7th graders want me to come back and see the ads they've done because they think I'll be impressed.
Oh, and the Starburst "berries & cream" is a bigger hit than any of us ever imagined.
So I met with my friend Thursday night to go over what I should do. Advertising and persuasion is part of the Virginia SOLs and I didn't want to mess them up on their tests.
Luckily, I was just sort of "introducing" them to the concept of critically looking at ads and how advertisers persuade them to buy things.
Earlier I'd gone through my old college design textbooks and pulled their "persuasive" techniques. You know, nice things like visual metaphors or comparisons or puns, blah, blah, blah. The persuasive techniques named by her handouts weren't as glossed over - things like "glittering generalities," "card stacking," and "name calling." Not that those aren't true of course.
So since they've been bogged down with preparing for the SOLs, she told me to make it fun. I showed her some of the commercials I'd gotten to show them and she goes... "oh they can sing that Snickers song for you." Awesome.
So I picked some print ads and some commercials and made a PowerPoint presentation. I'm still learning PowerPoint, but I think it was pretty good if I do say so myself. Oh, and I redid that "Guess the Logo" online game and they played it for candy.
I stopped by the store on the way there to pick up the candy - and yes, I did get Starburst Berries & Cream... I needed something without any trace of peanuts. So it was those and Smarties®.
*Continues below.
In all the classes, most thought it would be awesome to have ads on school buses when I first asked them. But then I pushed them a little. I asked them about what they thought if ads were on the sides of space shuttles, all three times I got the answer - if they are on the side of the space shuttle it must be a good company or an important product they should know about. So I asked what if it was a candy bar and the company just paid the large amount of money to have it there. They sat there thinking for a while and then decided it wouldn't be that cool.
Part of the school bus thing was my fault, I absent-mindedly used bananas as an example and they couldn't get passed that. Besides they have the Got Milk? ads in the cafeteria they told me.
Perfect timing for this too as we are now getting electronic billboards that will rotate about 6 different ads. And one is on their way to school. I got the "it's awesome" response and then somebody raised their hand to say that he thinks it could cause a lot of wrecks because people would pay too much attention to the billboard.
So first answer was more than likely - "that's cool," "that's awesome," but if you pushed even a little they started thinking beyond the fact that it was flashy or funny.
By the way - the candy really is good. And it smells even better.
No, no... I didn't go searching for it, one of my friends joined it and therefore I saw it in the stalkerish news feed they have.
Seems there is also one for the singing rabbit.
Maybe I don't understand Facebook groups.
But I do have a picture. *lol*
This was a quick shot of one of the ads we had them do. 2 classes came twice (normally one period for writing and one for reading). So the first time I gave them my little presentation and we talked about ads I brought. The second time we had them do an ad.
They had to pick a verb and an animal and create an energy drink. That little copy up top reads, "more vitamins to keep you going."
Yeah, they see a lot of commercials.
On the down-side the majority of them thought it would be really cool to have ads on their buses.
Oh, and the Starburst guy was a real hit, I'm sure their other teachers LOVED me after that.
(Click for larger picture.)
