Teacher instructions

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Tune in: Reviewing persuasive techniques

20 minutes

Find out: Judging the Academy Awards

20 minutes

Take action: Make an even more convincing ad

Tune in: Reviewing persuasive techniques

Step 1.

Ask students to think of some of their favourite commercials.

Students might not be watching much TV these days, so you might have to think about commercials they've seen in other places: on YouTube, or at the cinema.

Step 2. Discuss:

What were these commercials trying to get you to do? Most likely they were trying to get you to buy something. But it's not that simple. Most commercials want to change the way you think - usually to be positive about the thing they are showcasing. That's what makes you want to buy it.
What made those commercials successful? Were they funny? Sad? Were they visually interesting? Did they feature someone famous that you knew?

Find out: Judging the academy awards

Step 1.

Tell your students that they have been asked to judge the TV commercials entered in the Academy Awards for TV Commercials this year.

Before we can judge, we need to have a formula or set of instructions so that everyone is judging the ads on the same merits, not just which one they personally like the most.

To do this, students will need to know what good persuasive techniques look like.

Step 2. Watch:

Top 5 - Greatest Speeches of the 20th Century (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5110UES-QzE)

Take action: Make an even more convincing ad

Step 1.

As a class, look back over your rubrics. Were there any areas that the ads were particularly poor at? How could you improve them.

Step 2.

Individually, students write up a pitch for an improvement on one of these ads. Maybe if it was funnier, or had better graphics, it would have scored higher on the rubric and maybe even won the academy award!

Step 3.

Depending on how much time you have, students might like to storyboard their idea for a new and improved ad. You might even go out and film the new ad, and conduct a screening for your class, or even your whole school at an assembly.

Would you be brave enough to give others a rubric to critique your ads? This would be a great bit of real-world feedback on how well students understand persuasive techniques in commercials.

Reflection

Ask each student to share one technique with the class that can be used to persuade someone in an ad. It's okay if you double up!

Differentiated Learning

If your students are skilled writers, you might be able to combine both the skills and understanding of persuasive writing by having students write an essay that persuades the audience why one of the ads is or isn't particularly persuasive. This would take a lot of skill to not only understand the techniques being used (well, or badly), but to also apply these techniques in their own piece of writing.

Persuasive Techniques in Commercials

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