Tell students that you will be viewing a foreign language commercial. Ask them to write down three things (have these pre-written on the board).

1. What product are they trying to sell?

2. What story are they telling?

3. How are these two things related (the product and the story)? Play Arabic McDonald’s commercial. (McDonald’s TV Commercials)

(Think, Pair, Share). Have students share their thoughts afterward with their partner. Have a short class discussion. Why did the company chose to tell that story to sell their product? Is it effective? What kind of planning do you think went into the creation of this commercial? If the product and the story don’t seem particularly related, why then would a company chose to use this as an advertisement? (it appeals to the audience)

Big companies put a lot of research into their advertisements, especially into what will appeal to their audience. Lots of time and effort goes into constructing a commercial so that the target audience will be influenced to purchase and/or use the product. In the very least if the commercial is memorable, like this one, then the audience will recall the product on occasion. A professional commercial copywriter wrote, “My biggest challenge was how to educe the desired emotion out of the viewer. It could be sadness, laughter, guilt, happiness or fear that would get the viewer's attention. I knew that if a commercial could hold onto that attention for 30 seconds, odds they'd shop for that product were significantly increased. I learned if I could write an advertisement that stirred those emotions in myself, chances were good it would work on the audience. I was usually correct. One final suggestion for writing effective copy for television commercials is to not speak above your audience, don't speak down to them and don't speak at them. Write in a voice that speaks with the audience on their terms. How else can you expect them to share the message your client's television commercial is delivering.”(McGee)

Discussion: What tactics do advertisers use to appeal to different audiences? We’re going to watch a few more commercials, for each I want to write down three things:

1) Who is the intended audience?

2) List something specific that makes you think it is geared for the audience you listed

3) Write one sentence that tells the basic story, or idea of the commercial.

For each audience, show one of the commercials geared towards them(mcdonalds.)

• Adults (30+) (mcdonalds #3, 4, 8, 9)
  
• Teenagers (13-19) (#5, or 6)
  
• Young Adults (20-29) (inner child commercial or mcdonalds#1, 2, 6, 9, 10)
  
• Children (0-12) (mcdonalds, 7, 8)
  

Discuss with the students what they wrote down. Why did they assign certain audiences to specific commercials? What are some things that all the commercials had in common? (music, repeated use of slogan, appeal to an active, fun lifestyle) Which commercials were geared to your age group? How could you tell? What images, sotries, music, etc. were used? What do you find appealing? What are some flaws?

Modeling: Now we will watch the “commercial” created by some students and posted online (either the McBeatbox or the extreme drive thru) What did the students do that was appealing to you? What were some flaws?

Check for Understanding: So, if we were a major advertising company, trying to market a new McDonald’s sandwich to high school students, what kinds of images, stories, music, etc, would we want to use? List suggestions on the board under Teenagers. Feel free to ask students to justify their idea. How about for kids? Adults? Young Adults?

Now we have an idea of how we can appeal to a general teenage audience. But every person in here is a little bit different. Perhaps I don’t like rock music, so that a commercial with that wouldn’t appeal to me, etc. Each of us has different tastes.

Guided Practice: Now I’d like each person to write down some things that would appeal to you specifically. Are there hobbies that you have, family traditions, sports, music, a funny story, maybe you don’t like tomatoes, whatever. Just write down some things an advertiser might put in their commercial that would appeal specifically to you. You can use things we’ve listed here, or things you’ve seen in some of the commercials you’ve seen, or whatever else you can think of. As students write, walk around the class, answer questions, ask students about the idea they are writing down.

Independent Practice: Now get into your groups of three (these may be pre-assigned, self-selected, or however you chose to organize your class). Talk over your lists of ideas. Choose one idea, or combine a few and begin brainstorming about how you could make this into a commercial that would appeal specifically to your group. After brainstorming, storyboard your commercial. Use the standard storyboarding techniques we learned in earlier this year. It can only be 30-45 seconds, the average length of a TV commercial. You will present your ideas next class period.

Closure: Bring the class back together for a quick discussion before the end of class. As we are exploring ways that advertisers try to appeal to us in their commercials, it is important to ask ourselves why they use certain tactics to do so. We noticed that every commercial portrayed people having a very fun and active lifestyle. Why would an advertiser do that? Does eating McDonald’s really make you happier? Lots of other companies use this tatic, of portraying a specific, desirable lifestyle, though their product might not be at all related to that ideal. So when we watch commercials, how much to we believe about the ideas they are trying to sell us about their product?

Next class period each group will present their commercial ideas and explain why they used the images, music, words, etc, that they chose. Students will turn in their individual lists, brainstorming papers, and storyboards. This is pretty informal assessment. As long as they have completed the work, can justify their choices, and contribute in their group, they pass.

This lesson was contributed by Summer Lewis, a theatre education major at BYU.