Commercial Considerations
Have students access the student chapter Commercial Considerations and have them look at the initial image in the first Image Slider (the rider popping a wheelie), or display the image on a screen or digital whiteboard.
Use the Image Slider to reveal the second image (the CycleSouth ad) and ask students:
How is this different from the last image? How does the image “read” differently when you see it as an ad?
- For example, the movement and danger of the image might make you stop and look at it a little longer if you saw it in a magazine.
How can you recognize that this new image is an ad?
What is the ad saying? Do the words and the pictures say the same thing?
Who do you think this ad is aimed at? Why?
- Push students past “people who like bicycles.” What do the content and choices tell them about the age, gender, personality and interests of the target audience?
Now have students look at the second Image Slider (the two bicycles) and then reveal the second image beneath (the Instagram post).
Ask:
How is this different from the previous version of this image?
How does the image “read” differently when you see it as an ad?
- For example, the friendly feeling might spark good memories of biking with friends.
How can you recognize that this new image is an ad?
What is the ad saying? Do the words and the pictures say the same thing?
Who do you think this ad is aimed at? Why?
Now ask students:
Based on these ads, how are Cyclesouth bikes different from Amigo bikes in terms of who they’re being sold to and how they’re being sold?
Would they have recognized that the Instagram post was an ad if it didn’t have the #ad hashtag?
How important do they think it is for influencers to say when they’re advertising something?
- Tell students that the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards requires influencers to clearly show when they are being paid to advertise something. For instance, it would not be enough to have “#bikead” as a hashtag because people might not notice the word “ad”.
Point out to students that neither ad actually tells you to buy the bike being advertised, or even says anything about that specific kind of bike. So what about these last two images makes them ads?
- Highlight to students that advertisers make content and framing choices in the same way as other media makers do. The difference is that ads have an extra persuasive intent: they’re trying to get you to recognize, like, and possibly buy the thing being advertised. In a good ad, the content and framing choices “work” as a media text and also support the persuasive intent.