Ethics in advertising

How can consumers protect themselves from misleading advertising?

Consumers should:

• Be attentive to advertising messages;
• Get informed before they buy;
•  Distinguish between advertising messages/pictures and reality;
•  Talk to their children about the tactics used by advertisers;
•  Complain when they feel misled/ fooled/deceived;
•   Read labels and “the small letters”;

Video:  Food ad tricks: helping kids to understand food ads on TY

What should authorities do?

-          Should they allow advertisers to do whatever they want?

-                                               establish laws against misleading advertising?

-                                                 ban commercials that influence people to behave in an unethical manner?

-                                               ban commercials aimed at children? 

Videos 

               Funny Toyota Rav4 Murder Ad Banned Commercial 2011 Carjam Radio Show  
            Effects of junk food advertising on childhood obesity.        

After watching the second video, answer these questions:

1-     What are the chronic diseases caused by fast food?

2-      Who profits from children´s obesity?

3-      How do advertisers target kids?

4-      What can society do?

A debate on consumerism

On February we are going to have a debate/ role play on consumerism.
Students are going to work in groups of four or five and are expected to perform the role of the following  characters.

Groups of four:
A shopaholic, a psychologist; an advertiser and defender of the consumer society; an activist against consumerism.

Groups of five:
A shopaholic, a psychologist; an advertiser and defender of the consumer society; an activist against consumerism; a friend or a relative of the shopaholic.

  Get prepared!

Consumerism and advertising

http://images.channelone.com/img/life/consumerism-l.jpg

We have been talking about the topic, Consumerism, which is divided in 3 different sets.

In the 1^st set, we discussed the following topics:

·         the impact of the media in our society;

·         the difference between reality and the pictures conveyed by the media;

·         the making of a celebrity;

·         today’s focus on popularity and success;

·         the perpetuation of the impossible “thin” and eating disorders;

·         Body idioms and expressions;

·         Grammar: Infinitives and gerund;

In this unit we used lots of videos such as:  Billionaire (Bruno Mars),  Celebrities before and after photoshop,   Less than perfect (Pink )

In the 2^nd set, we talked about:

• the impact of advertising in our society;
• commercial and non-commercial advertising;
• goals of advertising (AIDMA)
• what makes a good print ad;
•  xamples of advertising in our daily life;
• the differences between slogans and advertising messages;
• grammar: modals
• grammar: IF clauses type 3

We used videos such as, Emmy 2011 best commercial nominees ; Movie segments to assess grammar goals;


In the third set, we have been talking about:

• ·         the ethics in advertising;
• ·         examples of unethical/misleading advertising;
• ·         protection against misleading advertising;
• ·         aggressive advertising techniques;
• ·         effects of junk food advertising on childhood obesity.

We have been using videos such as, " Food ad tricks;  "Effects of junk food advertising on childhood obesity ;