Should children learn about advertising in school and if so, what do teachers need to understand about the way in which children engage with advertising?
The purpose of advertising is to increase purchases of a product (Gunter, Oates and Blades 2005). Therefore, why are so many advertisements aimed at children as consumers? And why should children be taught about advertising in scools?
Children purchase billions of pounds worth of products every year over the world (Gunter et al. 2005). They spend four to five hours a day accessing technological media outside of school (Cooke 2002) and with there being approximately 10 minutes of advertising in every hour of television, children are a prime target to appeal to as consumers. Therefore, teachers need to provide an education to pupils about advertising, to make them more aware of it's purpose and uses (Banaji 2010).
As a student teacher, I see advertising and examples of advertising as a great opportunity to teach children about many aspects of Literacy, for example features of persuasive writing. Although there are many other ways of teaching persuasive writing, using adverts as an example is relevant to the children and can be much more exciting when combining the use of technology with Literacy (Monteith 2002). Through teaching this particular topic, children will become aware of the purposes of advertising. It will also increase teacher's awareness of why advertising is used and how they can be used for their ideas, rather than focussing on what the product is that the advert is trying to sell (Banaji 2010).
Children need to engage not only with advertising, but with all which is around them in the world to greater prepare them for society. If this does not happen in school, they may not receive all they need at home, leaving them with a disadvantage. Therefore, teachers and parents need to work together to provide a positive educational experience for children, allowing them to explore all aspects of the media, including advertising, for them to understand the meaning behind it.
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Banaji, S. (2010) ‘Analysing Advertisements in the
Classroom’ in Bazelgette, C. (ed) Teaching
Media in Primary Schools London: SAGE
Cooke, T. (2002) in Gunter, B. Oates, C. and Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to Children on TV New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Cooke, T. (2002) in Gunter, B. Oates, C. and Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to Children on TV New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Gunter, B. Oates, C. and Blades, M. (2005) Advertising to Children on TV New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Monteith, M. (2002) Teaching Primary Literacy with ICT OUP
I agree that teaching children about advertising is important in preparing them for society. Using it as a tool for teaching the features of persuasion is a great idea, especially as adverts come in different forms these days, for example, on the tv, radio, posters etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is extremely important to educate children on the nature of advertisements in order to increase their awareness of the intent of advertisers to persuade the public into buying their products. Teaching them by incorporating adverts into learning is a great way to engage the children and, like you said, it is relevant to their own lives and experiences. Using adverts as a teaching method will enable children to become aware of the purposes of advertisements and allow them to make their own judgments on their influence and intent, which is important as they will always be exposed to these types of media.
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