Ad Men

The objective

To discuss advertising and decide what´s most effective

The language

Imperatives: Go to your nearest store. Call now! Visit us online.

Synonyms: newest=latest, green=eco-friendly, thrilling=exciting

The set-up

Cut out a pile of ads from different magazines, newspapers and junk-mail flyers. Do

The low-down

Dictate/write on the board the following rules for writing a good advertisement:

1) Attract attention of your target audience with a captivating headline.

2) Use short sentences and imperative language to convey your message.

3) Tell or show them the benefits of the product to keep them reading or watching.

4) Get them to act immediately by ordering your products or service, sending for information, visting your stores, etc.

Ask students to react to these statements in open class or in pairs. Do they agree or disagree? Why? After a few minutes, and without having come to any definite conclusions as a class, move on to the next steps. Divide the students into small groups and hand each group several ads you´ve cut-out (they won´t all get the same ones). Ask groups to look at the ads one at a time and decide whether each ad follows these rules and if so, how. If they decide that they do not follow the rules, ask them to make a list of four rules of their own, based on the ads (which, by the way, they can also pass between groups).

Now what?

Invite groups to report their findings, either in favor of or against the above rules. If they are against, what rules did they decide?

Time to teach

You can look at a variety of things here. The most obvious and important consideration is how and why the pronoun "you" is used (imperative forms to give urgency and conviction, informal register to sound more friendly and close to audience, etc). Another possibility for discussion is word-choice and the connotations of words. You can use examples from the ads to ask why one word was chosen over another. Or, if the ads are not in English, you can ask them to translate one ad in each group and then discuss word-choice from that angle (as well as the differences between the two languages and how a word may sound good in one language but not another).

More talk-time

In your opinion, how has the internet changed advertising?

Which do you prefer, television, magazine or internet ads? Why?

Can you remember an ad-campaign that you recently saw? Did you like it? Why or why not?

What is the secret, in your opinion, to a good ad?

Should there be stricter laws about advertising, for example, to children?