Investigating Advertising Tactics: Class Activity

Previously known as Climate Schools, OurFutures was developed by researchers based at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney, Australia. See the OurFutures website for more information.

Class discussion guided by worksheet.

Familiarity with a few common television commercials:

• Recordings or clips of some common television commercials (optional)
• Print or electronically share the attached class worksheet “The Advertising Detective” (optional).

Discussion topic: Discuss with the class some common advertisements they see on television and what tactics have been used to try to sell the product. Try to analyse some adverts, the worksheet from this lesson could be used as a basis for this discussion.

Optional: To ensure everyone is familiar with an advert under discussion you may want to show a recording of some TV adverts for the whole class to view - YouTube can be a good source for this.

• Understanding of how the media and advertising influence the community influence personal attitudes, beliefs, decisions and behaviours.

Secondary teachers reviewed this and other OurFutures activities, with 92.3% rating these activities as good or very good. This particular activity was among the most popular activities selected for implementation by teachers.

The benefits of implementing individual activities from OurFutures has not been examined. The benefits of implementing the entire 6 session OurFutures program has been supported by multiple research studies, see OurFutures: Alcohol Module.