"Allegory of the Cave" meets advertising
When I tell people that I worked in marketing before deciding to go back to school to become a teacher, many fail to see any sort of connection. I’m often met with something to the effect of, “Wow -- that’s quite a change.” The reality is, I’ve used so many skills that I developed as an account manager -- organization, communication, collaboration, creativity -- in teaching Having career experience outside of teaching has also undoubtedly created a desire to “make it real” for my students. I bring in my own experience and interests, and encourage my students to do the same. I seek not only to help them see how the skills we develop in high school will be useful, but also to make it relevant for them, and to give them a sense of purpose.
All 9th grade teachers at Chatham High School begin the year with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” It’s a brilliant choice, as so much of what we read, see, and experience can connect back to the ideas it presents -- the journey from ignorance to enlightenment and the idea of illusion versus reality.
After we analyze the text, I do a mini unit on rhetorical appeals in advertising. The bridge is Dove’s Evolution video from their campaign for real beauty. In it, we see very clearly the illusion of advertising. The model comes in looking like an average person and is transformed by hours in hair and makeup. Then we see the Photoshop process and the final product which presents an impossible image of beauty. The video ends with the words “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” Dove, while ultimately trying to sell their products, is also enlightening viewers about the danger of not questioning what we see.
The application
This leads into lessons on rhetorical appeals and how advertisers use them to get their audience to take some sort of action. We have fun looking at and analyzing various ads, one of my all time favorites being Google’s brilliant Dear Sophie video. I ask students to chose their own ads and post an analysis to Schoology, and they always love talking the class through their analysis.
For the final project, students create their own ads. My first year teaching, I gave students a product to advertise but let them choose the approach and medium. Since then, I’ve released even more freedom to my students, allowing them to work by themselves or choose a partner, and allowing them to choose a product or service. This year, I had the most students ask me if they could create a new product to advertise… My answer? Heck yes! One group advertised BAE-dar, an app for finding your bae. (Oh, if it was that easy!) Two soccer players created an amazing video ad for Success Spray. The added freedoms lead to greater engagement and ultimately better products.
In the end, my students had a richer understanding of rhetorical appeals because they not only saw what they look like in real life, but also applied them to create something. A 9th grade student in my Concepts class, which moves at a slower pace, came in one day and asked, “Ms. McCabe, are we going to GET to do that ad project? It seems like a lot of fun.”
Home run.
All 9th grade teachers at Chatham High School begin the year with Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” It’s a brilliant choice, as so much of what we read, see, and experience can connect back to the ideas it presents -- the journey from ignorance to enlightenment and the idea of illusion versus reality.
After we analyze the text, I do a mini unit on rhetorical appeals in advertising. The bridge is Dove’s Evolution video from their campaign for real beauty. In it, we see very clearly the illusion of advertising. The model comes in looking like an average person and is transformed by hours in hair and makeup. Then we see the Photoshop process and the final product which presents an impossible image of beauty. The video ends with the words “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.” Dove, while ultimately trying to sell their products, is also enlightening viewers about the danger of not questioning what we see.
The application
This leads into lessons on rhetorical appeals and how advertisers use them to get their audience to take some sort of action. We have fun looking at and analyzing various ads, one of my all time favorites being Google’s brilliant Dear Sophie video. I ask students to chose their own ads and post an analysis to Schoology, and they always love talking the class through their analysis.
For the final project, students create their own ads. My first year teaching, I gave students a product to advertise but let them choose the approach and medium. Since then, I’ve released even more freedom to my students, allowing them to work by themselves or choose a partner, and allowing them to choose a product or service. This year, I had the most students ask me if they could create a new product to advertise… My answer? Heck yes! One group advertised BAE-dar, an app for finding your bae. (Oh, if it was that easy!) Two soccer players created an amazing video ad for Success Spray. The added freedoms lead to greater engagement and ultimately better products.
In the end, my students had a richer understanding of rhetorical appeals because they not only saw what they look like in real life, but also applied them to create something. A 9th grade student in my Concepts class, which moves at a slower pace, came in one day and asked, “Ms. McCabe, are we going to GET to do that ad project? It seems like a lot of fun.”
Home run.
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