Purpose: Students will learn the various techniques that advertisers use to sell their products. Students will examine media's use of nature and wilderness and how that usage ultimately affects the wild. Students will utilize their acquired knowledge in a persuasive speech or presentation as they "sell" a product or service to their peers.

Materials: Magazines, newspapers, videos of commercials, access to the Internet/clipart/PowerPoint, paper, glue

Duration: 3 - 4 class periods

California Academic Standards that fit this lesson:

• Recognize strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain, and transmit culture (e.g., advertisements; perpetuation of stereotypes; use of visual representations, special effects, language).
• Identify the aesthetic effects of a media presentation and evaluate the techniques used to create them
• Compare and contrast the ways in which media genres (e.g., televised news, news magazines, documentaries, online information) cover the same event
• Formulate judgments about the ideas under discussion and support those judgments with convincing evidence
• 1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies: Students formulate adroit judgments about oral communication. They deliver focused and coherent presentations of their own that convey clear and distinct perspectives and solid reasoning. They use gestures, tone, and vocabulary tailored to the audience and purpose.
• 2.6 Deliver multimedia presentations

Introduction/Background: Think of how many commercials there are on television, how many ads there are in magazines and newspapers. Many of these try to sell us a product that will make us more efficient or allow us to use our leisure time in exciting ways. Many agencies try to romanticize their product and for many people today that includes getting away to a simpler, wilder place.

Directions/Activity:

Activity One: Advertising Techniques

Students will learn about different advertising techniques. Show students a video of television commercials and/or have them collect advertisements from magazines/newspapers etc. to put on the board. Students can also examine advertisements on the Internet. Have the students discuss the techniques advertisers use to sell their products (let them use their own terminology first) - list these techniques on the board. Then give the students a handout with a complete list of techniques advertisers use (or have them look the terms up using one of the Internet sites listed) - have the students go back over the ads again this time applying the new terminology to their examples. Once students have a firm grasp of the techniques advertisers use it's time to look at how the media utilizes wild places and Wilderness areas in advertisements.

Activity Two - "Wild Advertising"

Purpose: Students will learn how the wilderness is portrayed by the media and how that portrayal ultimately effects the wilderness.

Directions:

Have the students collect ten examples of wild places and Wilderness areas being used in advertisements - at least five of their examples will be items not directly related to the Wilderness or outdoor recreation. Students should use a variety of sources (magazines, newspapers, television, and the Internet).

Give each student a copy of the "TV Advertisement Data Sheet" for the television commercials they collect - the rest of their examples should be brought into class. Have the students share their collection with you and their classmates.

What is being sold? How is the wilderness being used to sell the product? Do they notice any trends (do most of them seem to be advertising the same thing? Do most of them seem to portray wilderness in a negative or a positive way?

Have the students look over their advertisements carefully. They should list any potentially undesirable behaviors that are being portrayed; high impact practices, personally dangerous practices, and/or things that aren't really feasible in the setting they are portrayed. Students can do this individually and then share what they find with the class. As the students share their responses you might want to write them down on the board and again check for any trends - how do most advertisers use the wilderness in their ads?

Activity Three - Differing Viewpoints

Purpose: Students will learn to examine an issue from all sides.

Directions:

Photocopy the student handout, and with the participants' background information, slice up into singular strips. Have each student draw one from a hat.

*Optional: give student 30 seconds to trade if they really want to.

Give students 10 minutes to prepare their three minute presentation for "the town meeting." A representative of the advertising agency should contact the Forest Service and vice versa. Encourage creativity, uses of class props.

At the end of the 10 minutes, have the student select a mediator for the meeting. Review your rules for class discussions.

Have the advertising agency and product representatives present first. Then have the forest representatives present second. Open the floor to the citizens for their input. Allow the discussions to continue until there is a general consensus with a majority or until there are only 5-10 minutes let in class. Halt the discussion and have everyone write down their vote and one reason why they voted either for or against the filming project ( have them consider whether it was the information or the persuasive techniques use by the speaker or both that won their vote). Have students turn their answers in after you have tallied the vote in class. Further discussion is optional.

Activity Four - "You Create It"

Purpose: Students will create their own advertisement utilizing the concepts they have learned.

Directions:

Have your students invent in their minds a product or service to sell to the class . The students will then need to develop an advertisement for their product - they should use the different advertising techniques they have learned. Make sure they consider who there target audience is and that they develop an ad that will appeal to that audience.

Your students will then "sell" their product to the class in a persuasive speech. If your students haven't given persuasive speeches before be sure to give them tips and suggestions as well as several practice speech assignments. For their speech you can encourage students to utilize visual aids such as drawings, photo collages, a PowerPoint presentation, or even have them create a video tape commercial.

As the speeches are given have the rest of the class determine silently if they would buy that product or not and why. Each speaker should complete their own evaluation as well - Ask them to consider the following: Did your target audience seem interested in your product? Why or Why not? Which techniques did you use? Did they work well? Why? Would a different technique have worked better? Why or Why not?

Evaluations/Outcome: Evaluate the students own advertisement campaigns - did the students utilize the advertising techniques they learned? Were students able to effectively "sell" their product in their persuasive speech? Were students able to identify how advertisers used the wilderness in their campaigns? Could students determine how advertisements effected the wilderness?

Extensions:

• Have students create a collage that demonstrated the different advertising techniques they have learned. Have them discuss/answer the following: Do you think that was or was not the best technique to use for this product? Who is the target audience in each ad? How do advertisers appeal to that audience? How do these ads effect our perception of wild places?
• Have students create a video to raise awareness about advertising techniques. They must use at least five of the techniques discussed in class. They should especially consider how advertising effects the wilderness. What are some positive ways advertisers can use wild places?
• Have students select an advertisement that uses wilderness in a negative way. They should then create a new advertisement for that product that either promotes a positive usage of nature or that leaves nature out altogether. Be sure they consider their target audience.
• Have students create a pamphlet using the information they have learned. The pamphlet should alert consumers to the techniques advertisers use to sell their products. Which techniques and/or products can benefit the wild?