LESSON 3. Writing a Commercial
By Vernalstene Jones
OBJECTIVE: To inform students about the many techniques that ad writers use to persuade consumers to buy a product.
OUTCOME: Each student will be required to create a product and write a commercial to sell that product.
CONDITIONS: This project will take about five class periods.
ACTIVITIES:
· Discuss with students the differences between ads made for television and radio and ads in the print medium.
· Show copies of ads from newspapers, magazines and television.
· Discuss the techniques used by ad writers to persuade:
1. Everybody uses it (band wagon technique)
2. Appeal to reason
3. Special people use it
4. Celebrity endorsements
· Once the techniques have been discussed and clarified, students will be given time to come up with a new product. (individually)
· After a viable product is created the student will write a commercial to sell that product to a particular target audience.
MATERIALS: Construction paper, colored markers, any other materials students will need to model a product.
MODIFICATIONS: Some students may be allowed to work in pairs or groups.
ASSESSMENT: Students will be graded on viability of the products created and the persuasiveness of their commercials.
STANDARDS: Language Arts / Listening and Reading, grade 8, Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication 1.7.