CML : Smoke Detectors! : Sample Lesson Plan

Lesson 1
Product Placement and Tobacco Incidents

Material:

Objectives:

Students will be able to describe how all media are constructed and sometimes with product placements.
Students will be able to understand the role of advertising in the media and product placements.
Students will be able to identify a tobacco placement in TV or film.
Students will be able to recognize and respond to "negative social influences and pressure to use alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs." (Health Framework for CA Public Schools, Examples of Skills and Behaviors, Chapter 3).

Activities:

Group Discussion " Key Question: Why was this message sent?
- Ask students, "who pays for television?" Discuss commercials and the purpose of advertising to pay for what we watch on television.
- Explain product placement. Use the product placement fact sheet provided by CML.
- Ask students to explain the quote: "the product being sold is the audience."
- Show video clip of The Truman Show with Jim Carrey (show segments: 7:40, 12:05-12:50, These scenes make fun of product placement by making it so obvious)
- Discuss tobacco placements in TV and film and question why we see them.

Go to the Horse's Mouth " Key Question: Who created this message?
- Have students go to product placement industry web sites that boast about their success at getting products on TV and in films. Below is a listing of some web sites (if you cannot access the Internet, you can make overhead transparencies of the web sites):
  1. Entertainment Resources and Marketing Association (ERMA) is an association made up of agencies and corporations that provide product placement to the film industry: http://www.erma.org/nav/frame.html
  2. Set Resources is a product placement agency that has movie clips with cost comparison: http://www.setresources.com/reel.html
  3. Creative Entertainment Services is a full service entertainment marketing agency: http://www.acreativegroup.com/ceshome/
  4. A story about Apple Computers and their product placement success: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/features/starringapple.html

Scavenger Hunt
- Show a short clip from a television program or a movie.
  " Suggestions: Don't show an entire movie, choose short clips and leave the lights on.
- The first viewing should be in silence with each student writing notes each time they see a product that could have been a paid placement. This allows all students time to analyze.
- Next, debrief the clip and ask students to report what they saw.
- After a discussion, show the clip again to see if any new comments emerge.

Tobacco Incidents
- Discuss the 4 Critical Questions from the American Lung Association:
  1. How is tobacco use portrayed?
  2. How often is tobacco used?
  3. Who uses tobacco?
  4. Where is tobacco used?

Extensions
- Give students the opportunity to make their own product placement PSA for their favorite shows.
  1. Have students choose a favorite TV show or film and pretend they work for a product placement agency.
  2. Their job is to create a product placement for the American Cancer Society.
  3. They should consider the type of product placement could they propose that would get the ACS anti-tobacco message on the air.
  4. How would they sell this idea to the TV network?
  5. Write up your ideas and send them to the network to see how they respond.
- Investigate virtual advertising
  1. Go online and check out Princeton Video Image: http://www.pvi-inc.com/index.html
  2. Discuss the ethical issues of this type of advertising.

Assessment
- Students can be assessed based on their participation during the discussions.
- Students can be evaluated for the product placement PSA they create.
- Students can write an essay about the advantages and disadvantages of product placement.
- Students can write about why think tobacco incidents in the movies have increased.