The Rookery

Work by a younger student who was inspired by the Herons' ads

We wrapped up our first mini unit on advertising this past week in which we had a lot of fun dissecting the ads they brought in to better understand the elements that go into creating an enticing advertisement.  

I picked up on the student's desire to talk about and understand false advertising throughout the first half of this unit. They showed me their passion for the topic as they clamored for fairness from the advertising we were viewing. I believe these feelings carry over from the social curriculum that is deeply rooted in PCCS’s philosophy.

We spent a lesson critically viewing different commercials to get a grasp on how certain tactics are used to manipulate and mislead us. We watched a presentation on how a burger is put together for a commercial shoot in order to make it look better than it ever will in reality. We saw a demonstration of all the photoshopping that goes into a model’s face in preparation for a billboard advertisement.  We heard a spokesperson say their hair product contained “nutrileum” and expect the layperson to assume that nutrileum is something special. These videos (please ask your child about these) and the print ads we had been digging into throughout our lessons shocked the herons which in turned produced a desire to warn others that advertisers can and do trick us. My original plan had been for them to create posters detailing tactics advertisers use to manipulate us and give an example and then hang them in the ⅘ hallway, but they thought it was important to warn even the youngest PCCS students and took it upon themselves to hang their posters outside of their classrooms and in the spots around the school they thought would get the most attention.

Here are some of the videos we analyzed together:  

“Loreal – Weasel Words” , “Dihydrogen monoxide conspiracy”, “Dove – Evolution”, “Lights, Camera, Burger", Banzai Water Park

We started the last 2 days of the unit reading an article about a study conducted at Stanford which concluded that the use of “seductive names” make vegetables more appealing. The content of this article brought about a lively discussion between the students about causes we care about and how the advertising techniques we have learned about can be used in a positive way. We decided we were going to create posters to hang up in the concourse where lunch is served, in order to promote our favorite fruits and vegetables, and hopefully convince other students to eat more of theirs.

Another ad by a 2/3 inspired by the Herons.

We sat as a class and went through all the advertising strategies we learned about over the course of the unit and tried to come to a consensus which ones we felt were ethical and appropriate to use, before the work began. This was a productive and interesting discourse where the herons discussed what they felt was fair and what went too far. They decided we wouldn’t lie on our posters, we wouldn’t use selective editing, and a really beautiful discussion developed around using fear to sell. The class was stuck at an impasse trying to decide if fear is okay as long as it is used for a good cause. The Herons realized that they did not enjoy being scared but were able to recognize that fear can be a very convincing tactic. They, for the most part, decided that fear was okay to use in their posters as long as they weren’t lying but they also realized they were marking to younger students so their target audience might end up being put off by scare tactics. The herons each came up with multiple proposals to convince students to eat more of their favorite fruit or vegetable before deciding on their strongest idea and making their ad a reality. I think they turned out wonderfully and really show off the Heron’s creativity.  - R.H.