The unit is delivered within the scope of the Victorian curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) guidelines for accreditation, assessment and reporting. Although the curriculum is aligned to VCAA level 10 English, this unit provides exposure to the VCE Vocational Major program, specifically Literacy, which is underpinned by applied learning principles.
- Students are taught to conceptualise advertisements as constructed messages.
- They develop the knowledge and skills to explicitly interpret advertisements and explore how advertisers target their audience and use visual/persuasive elements to add impact.
- Students are assessed on their ability to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of various advertisements.
- Subsequently, students invent products and produce their own advertisements filled with persuasive components.
- They present this to their peers and reflect and evaluate others’ pieces.
It is estimated that this unit will run for 9 weeks.
Based on the term structure in Victoria, this unit would be best suited to term 1 or term 4.
This unit could be integrated with other level 10 subjects such as Media Arts.
F-10 Curriculum Links
English Level 10
Reading and Viewing
Language
- Expressing and Developing Ideas
Literature
- Responding to Literature
- Texts in Context
- Interpreting, analysing and evaluating
Writing
Language
- Text structure and organisation
- Expressing and developing ideas
- Phonics and word knowledge
Literature
Literacy
Speaking and Listening
Language
Literature
Literacy
Critical and Creative Thinking Levels 9 and 10
Personal and Social Capabilities Levels 9 and 10
Social Awareness and Management
Links to the VCE VM Literacy Study Design
This unit is intended to provide exposure to knowledge and skills from
VCE VM Literacy Units 1 & 2, alongside the F-10 curriculum.
Unit 1 Area of Study 1
On completion of this unit the student should be able to demonstrate understanding of how text types are constructed for different purposes, audiences and contexts through a range of written, digital, oral and visual responses.
Language of Advertising Link
In this unit, students read, analyse and create a range of advertising texts. These texts allow them to engage with the construction of advertising texts for a range of specific purposes, audiences and contexts.
Unit 2 Area of Study 1
On completion of this unit the student should be able to explain the purpose, audience and main ideas of diverse arguments presented in different text types by creating a range of annotations and written, oral and multimedia responses that reflect learning.
Language of Advertising Link
In this unit, students are exposed to a range of persuasive ideas and arguments presented in the advertising material they engage with.
Unit 1 Area of Study 2
On completion of this unit the student should be able to apply an understanding of the conventions of literacy and digital communication by responding to and creating a range of digitalcontent, suitable for a community, workplace or vocational context.
Language of Advertising Link
In this unit, students access and create a range of digital texts by reading, analysing and creating digital advertising materials.
Unit 2 Area of Study 2
On completion of this unit the student should be able to interpret the values and opinions of others and present in oral form points of view supported by evidence.
Language of Advertising Link
In this unit, students are exposed to a range of values and opinions presented in the advertising material they engage with, and must present their own points of view on this material.
Planning
| Timeline | Activity | F-10 Learning Area |
|---|
Week 1 | Introduction to advertising. | English Level 10 |
Reading and Viewing Language Literature
Writing Language Literature |
Week 2 | Advertising strategies (pathos, logos, ethos & common persuasive techniques). | English Level 10 |
Reading and Viewing Language Literacy
Writing Language Literature Literacy
Speaking and Listening Literature |
Week 3 | Advertisements through time. | English Level 10 |
Reading and Viewing Language Literature Literacy
Writing Language Literature Literacy |
Critical and Creative Thinking Level 10 | |
Week 4 | Modern methods of advertising. | English Level 10 |
Reading and Viewing Literacy Literature Writing
Language |
Week 5 | Advertising analysis. | English Level 10 |
Reading and Viewing Literature Literacy
Writing Language Literacy |
Week 6 | Controversial methods of advertising & selling the unsellable. | English Level 10 |
Reading and Viewing Literature Literacy
Speaking and Listening Literacy
Writing Language Literacy Literature |
Week 7 & 8 | Invent your own product and produce an advertisement. | English Level 10 |
Writing Language Literacy Literature |
Personal and Social Capability Level 10 | Social Awareness and Management |
Week 9 | Presentations and peer review of student advertisements. | English Level 10 | Speaking and Listening
Language Literature Literacy |
Critical & Creative Thinking Level 10 | |
Teaching
Activity 1
Prior knowledge of advertising
Learning Intention:
Success Criteria:
-
Describe different forms of advertising.
-
Name and define various methods of advertising.
- Begin the unit by asking students where they fall on the following spectrum, based on their encounters with advertising.
- I can completely ignore advertising
- I have made an effort to look like someone or acquire something I saw in an advertisement
- Jingles and images from commercials can often get trapped in my head
- Some advertisements make me question my appearance
- Use four quadrants of the classroom and ask students to stand next to the statement that suits them best. Generate discussion based on students’ choices.
- Discuss: Do you agree or disagree with what the other students have to say?
- Teacher to deliver content and lead discussion about the definition of advertising.
- As a topic starter, gather students’ existing knowledge of advertisements using a quiz or online tool.
Activity 1 (b) – Introduction to advertising
- Teacher to deliver content on types of print advertisements, intended target audience and impact advertisements have on target audience.
Activity 1 (c) – Introduction to advertising
- Students watch a range of video advertisements and complete post viewing questions.
- What is your first reaction to this TV advertisement? What emotion/s does the clip evoke?
- Identify which product is being sold and explain how this is shown.
- What are the colours being used? How are they significant to this advertisement?
- Who is the intended audience? How do you know?
- What is the underlying message of this advertisement?
Activity 2 (d) – Advertising Vocabulary
- Students develop a growing bank of advertising terminology. Students should add further terms throughout the course of the unit.
- Using a dictionary or own understanding, students to define the key words. They need to ensure terms relate specifically to advertising.
- Ethos
- Pathos
- Logos
- Colour
- Endorsement
- Strategy
- Foreground
- Background
- Brand/Logo
- Catchphrase/Slogan
Activity 2
Activity 2 (a) – Advertising strategies
Learning Intention:
-
What strategies are used in advertising?
Success Criteria:
-
Define pathos, logos and ethos and describe how it is used in advertising.
-
Apply pathos, logos and ethos to sell a ballpoint pen.
- Students watch a selection of video clips about rhetorical devices, persuasion and advertising.
- Students complete an activity to identify and record how these stylistic strategies are used in advertisements.
Activity 2 (b) – Pathos, Logos & Ethos
- Teacher to deliver further content on Pathos, Logos and Ethos.
- Students to apply their understanding of pathos, logos and ethos to sell a ballpoint pen. They should brainstorm their ideas before providing their reasons/examples.
- Students to share responses with class.
Activity 3
Activity 3 (a) – Common Persuasive Techniques used in advertising
Learning Intention:
-
How do companies advertise their products?
-
What persuasive techniques do advertisers use?
Success Criteria:
-
List ways companies advertise products.
-
Identify persuasive techniques and match with definitions.
- Teacher to deliver content on types of advertisements, for example, charities, endorsements, products. The class discuss the different features of these advertisements.
- The class watch videos and clips about common advertising techniques.
- Teacher to present and explain common persuasive techniques associated with advertising, for example, colour psychology, repetition, symbolism, storytelling, humour, appeal to reason, emotional appeals and composition.
- Teacher to provide students with a table to match selected persuasive language techniques to their definitions and examples of each technique in advertising.
- Once students have completed the task, the class review the answers.
- Place students in pairs. Assign groups 1-2 persuasive language techniques.
- Students create digital posters to explain and demonstrate each technique. The purpose of this task is to create a learning wall of the common persuasive techniques. These posters will allow students to strengthen their understanding of the concepts.
- The posters should include;
- Chosen technique
- Description
- Example
Activity 3 (a) – Common persuasive techniques used in advertising
Learning Intention
-
How are persuasive techniques used in commercials?
Success Criteria:
-
List all the common persuasive techniques used in particular advertisements. Give examples of them in use.
- The class watch a range of TV advertisements.
- Students list all the common persuasive techniques used in each advertisement and give examples of their use.
- Follow up with a class discussion of the techniques and examples viewed for each advertisement and record responses on the board.
Activity 4
Activity 4 (a) – Advertisements through time
Learning Intention:
-
How have advertisements evolved over time?
Success Criteria:
-
Profile on a brand/company/product that has at least been around for 20 years
-
Collage showing the different eras of the brand/company/product
-
Comparative analysis on what has remained constant and changed for the brand/company/product
- Teacher to emphasise how brands try to keep changing and adapting to new trends/values/interests of society to stay relevant and appeal to the masses. Highlight to students that the same product can be sold (and remain popular) for many years by tapping into society’s values, for example Coke, Levis, Nike etc.
- Look at the evolution of the advertising of a large company over time, for example Apple throughout the 1970s to today.
- Run a think-pair-share activity, looking at the changes and elements that have remained constant throughout the company’s advertising. Students to think about the different types of audiences throughout each era. Students to share reponses in a class discussion.
Activity 4 (b) – Research
- Students to individually research a brand/company/product that has been around for the last twenty years or more. The following aspects need to be addressed as part of their research:
- Name of company
- Year established
- Origin story
- Interesting facts
Activity 4 (c) – Collage
- Students to find 5-10 print advertisements by their selected brand/company from different eras and create a collage. They need to also label the year each advertisement was made.
Activity 4 (d) – Comparative
- Students compare the advertisements from their collages by answering the following questions:
- What has remained
consistent in all the advertisements? (logo, slogan, colour scheme, values, message etc.)
- What has
changed the most across all the advertisements? (logo, slogan, colour scheme, values, message etc.)
- In three sentences, explain how the earliest advertisement
compares to the most recent advertisement.
- Which advertisement is the most
effective? Refer to the persuasive advertising techniques you have learnt about to explain why.
Activity 5
Activity 5 (a) – Company campaigns
- Show a range of advertisements to students, for example;
- Nike - Just do it Nike
- Metro – Dumb ways to die
- Aldi – Good different
- Menulog – Snoop Dog
- Old Spice – The man your man could smell like
- Students to choose one of the advertisements and research the company and their advertising campaigns. Students address the following:
- Campaign Name
- Year Established
- Origin Story
- Common persuasive techniques used
- Ensure that students are sourcing their material by including references or a bibliography. Teacher to show students examples of how to source online material.
Activity 5 (b) – Advertising questionnaire
- Students to conduct an interview with a minimum of 3 people from the school community such as members of staff, other students from different subjects, classes etc. Students to select one of the advertising campaigns discussed in class and show their interviewees the advertisement before asking the questions below:
- How is this advertisement persuasive?
- What drew your attention to this advertisement?
- Has this campaign influenced you/your family in any way? For example, buying the product, quoting the ad, singing the jingle etc.
Activity 5 (c) – Advertising Evaluation Survey
- Students to develop questions for an advertising survey. Students should consider asking questions that evaluate the advertisements. Teacher should brainstorm a list of questions and indicators that students could use, for example:
Sample Questions
- How well does the advertisement communicate its message?
- How effective is this advertisement at targeting its audience?
- Sample Indicators
- Extremely well
- Very Well
- Somewhat well
- Not very well at all
- Students are encouraged to interview 3-5 members of the school community, including staff and students.
Activity 5 (d) –Advertisement data reflection
- Students to reflect on their survey data using the following questions:
- What common persuasive techniques were your interviewees able to recognise in these advertisements?
- What aspects of the advertisement stood out to those you surveyed?
- Explain how these advertisements were influential to those you surveyed?
Activity 6
Activity 6 (a) – Modality in advertising
Learning Intention:
-
Understand what modal verbs are and how they are persuasive.
Success Criteria:
-
Create pieces of writing using modal verbs to highlight a perspective and give advice.
-
Be able to identify and explain the difference between high, medium and low modality.
Activity 6 (b) – Using modality to respond to ‘Agony Aunt letters’
- Teacher to discuss modality and how it is useful when persuading, particularly in advertising. Students to put their understanding of modal verbs into a writing piece.
- Students will show their understanding of modality through their response to ‘Agony Aunt’.
- Teacher to explain to students that ‘Agony Aunt’ is a column within a newspaper where people can write in with their own problems. Students will need to provide the author advice on what they think they should do. They should focus on using a range of modal verbs in their piece – deciding how forceful they want to be when presenting their advice.
- Agony Aunt letters:
-
I am 16 years old and I want to leave school this year. My parents say it is too early for me and that I should be trying to get into university. I want to work with my friend at McDonalds. Then I can start earning money to buy things.
Please tell me Agony Aunt what should I do?
Jane -
My friend thinks she’s fat and I don’t know why? I think she looks great, but she really likes this actress on TV and she copied her because she read in a magazine that she was on a diet. Now she’s taken it too far and is skipping meals and throwing away her lunch at school.
I’m really worried about her. What should I do?
Amy -
The teacher confiscated my phone because I was playing games in class and she said she was going to call my parents. Things at home haven’t been so good lately as my dad lost his job. I’m so worried they’re going to be really upset when the teacher calls.
I know I shouldn’t have been playing games in class, but my best friend was playing them too and it looked like fun.
Tom
Activity 7
Activity 7 (a) – Methods of modern advertising
Learning Intention:
-
What are the methods of modern advertising?
Success Criteria:
-
Identify and explain how different ads are used online
- Teacher to deliver content about modern advertising, such as social media and online advertising, influencers, direct advertising, etc.
- Some examples might include;
-
Banner and webpage advertisements
These advertisements appear on websites, usually at the top or sides of the page. They direct you to a website for more information about what is being sold. -
Advertisements based on interest
Some online advertisements you see are placed there based on your interests. But how does an advertiser know what you like? Businesses may track the websites visited and searched for on your computer, then they put ads for those products on your computer. -
Viral marketing advertisements
Just like a joke or story spreads from person to person, advertising spreads that way too. You might get a link to a funny video or message from a friend – and you might send it on to other friends if you like it. If the video or message shows a product (like a soft drink, movie, new song, electronic gadget), chances are it’s an advertisement. -
Advergaming advertisements
This is an advertisement for a company in the form of a game. These advertisements let you interact with a business’s characters and or logo. One of the strongest examples of advergaming can be found across the Lego brand. Lego has found a way to combine their app technology with their actual product bricks. Creating a platform for users to interact with both mediums and post about their creative builds. This is what makes Lego one of the most successful brands when it comes to game advertisements
Activity 7 (b) – Scavenger hunt – online ads
- Students to complete a scavenger hunt on the different kinds of online advertisements. They should hunt for banner/webpage advertisements, advertisements based on interest, viral marketing advertisements, advergaming advertisements. Students should record information about each advertisement as they find it.
Activity 8
Activity 8 – Advertising analysis
- Teacher to introduce the advertisement analysis task.
- Teacher should provide students a range of advertisements to analyse.
- Students should analyse each advertisement by considering the following:
-
Type of advertisement
Identify the type of the advertisement (product, cause, lifestyle or corporate image) -
Target audience
Write a description of the target audience and the effect the advertisement has on the audience. (consider: age, gender, income, occupation, ethnicity, interests etc. What are the audiences made to feel, act or do?) -
Attention
How did the advertisement attract your attention? Evaluate the use of colour, image and layout used within the advertisement.
(consider: size, colour, luxury, celebrities, questions, unusual images or words, direct address) -
Common Persuasive Techniques
Identify the common persuasive techniques used in each of the following advertisements. Give examples of them in use. -
Effectiveness
Rate the effectiveness out of 5 and explain why you gave it this rating. (An advertisement is considered effective if the viewer is interested in engaging with the product/service/cause/company being advertised.)
Activity 9
Activity 9 (a) – Controversial advertising
Learning Intention:
-
What is controversial advertising?
Success Criteria:
-
Summarise articles
-
Use source material to present a point of view
Activity 9 (b) – Summary of arguments made in article(s)
- Teacher to deliver content on controversial advertising.
- The class read a range of articles about controversial advertising, for example liquor advertising, gambling advertising, fast food advertising etc. Pause throughout each article to discuss author’s contention, arguments being made and any other significant messages.
- Students make a dot-point summary for one of the articles. Students will use the summary to draw attention to the key information presented in the document(s).
Activity 9 (c) – Use source material to present a point of view
- Students develop a piece of writing communicating a point of view based on one of the controversial advertising articles. Students should ensure that they refer to the text within their response. They can specifically do this with in text referencing or using direct quotations. The response must be between 100-150 words.
Activity 10
Activity 10 (a) – Selling the unsellable
Learning Intention:
Success Criteria:
-
Use persuasive techniques to present a hypothetical advertisement for a product.
- Students work in a pair and choose one of the following items to sell.
- An Old Boot
- A Stick-on Goatee
- A Leaky Bucket
- A Witchetty Grub
- A Broccoli Hat
- A Three-Wheeled Car
- Students will need to target a particular audience and include at least three common persuasive advertising techniques. They will also need to establish a few key things to include in their print advertisement – product name, target audience, three persuasive techniques. They should also sketch a draft of ideas before final product.
Activity 11
Activity 11 (a) – Create your own advertisement
- Part A - Create a new product/service/charity.
Advise students that they need to be creative and market a product/service/charity for a specific target audience. To generate some ideas, brainstorm types of products/services/charities students could develop as part of this project. - Part B – Students must create an advertisement for their product/service/charity.
They will need to keep in mind their “target audience” (who they are selling to) and use language appropriate for that audience. Students may use any digital/media platform to create their advertisement. - The products and advertisements must:
- Grab people’s attention immediately
- Use at least 3 common advertising techniques
- Be persuasive
- Be clear and engaging
- Be edited and refined
- Part C – Students must also write a short explanation of their advertisement that includes the following information:
- Why did you invent and market this product/service/charity?
- What advertising techniques did you use? Describe the images, font, colour scheme, pathos, logos, ethos…etc.
- What common persuasive techniques did you use? Explain how you persuade the viewer to buy your product/service/donate to your charity.
- Who is your target audience? What age group is your advertisement aimed at? What did you do to make sure the advertisement would suit this age group?
- Part D - Reflection
- Identify and explain 3 common persuasive techniques used in advertising.
- Identify one thing you really enjoyed about this topic and explain why.
- Regarding your work habits, what was something you believe you did well? Explain how you accomplished this. (For example, work ethic, organisation, engagement, effort, vocabulary choice, editing etc.)
- Regarding your work habits, what is something you believe you need to improve on? (For example, work ethic, organisation, engagement, effort, vocabulary choice, editing etc.)
Activity 12
Activity 12 (a) – Presentation of advertisements
- Students to present their creations to the class.
Activity 12 (b) – Peer review of advertisements
- Students to peer review each other’s advertisements.