The power of advertising is its ability to persuade and advertisers have a wide array of techniques to use in constructing their persuasive messages. This activity introduces ten common techniques that can be found in many ads. Students identify and deconstruct examples of these techniques in magazines and then create their own ads using some of these strategies. By combining analysis with production, students not only become conscious of the ways advertising works but also more active and critical with the advertising they encounter every day – whether on T-shirts, television, the Internet, billboards, or at the mall.

Download lesson plan # 2E

NOTE: This lesson plan is one of 25 cornerstone lesson plans for media literacy education available in Five Key Questions that Can Change the World, published by the Center for Media Literacy. To access the full collection, click here