So...you guys all know about the new Capstone Connect blog, right?
Head on over. There are daily posts from various divisions in the company—including from yours truly here at Capstone Fiction. (Look for us on Fridays, but check it out every day.)
And have no fear—the Stone Arch Books blog will stay here. But when we get busy, you'll have guaranteed reading material every day at Capstone Connect.
Our students represent a lucrative target audience. Companies bombard them daily with ads through every possible venue, so much so that most advertising is now an integral, barely noticed part of the American landscape.
And there's the rub. Barely noticed, yet there, exerting a powerful influence on how children choose to buy, think, and act.
In previous posts I've discussed
persuasive writing (
Convince Me: Real-Life Uses for Persuasive Writing and
So What’s Your Point? Persuasive Writing Using Picture Books) as well as
financial literacy (
Dollars and Sense for Students). Now Scholastic has teamed up with the Federal Trade Commission to combine these two ideas, plus the concept of
media literacy, to produce the
Admongo site and its
related teacher resources.
The FTC site explains that
Advertising is a multi-million dollar business. Truthful advertising provides benefits to consumers and competition. It gives consumers the information they need to make better-informed purchasing and product use decisions. It also gives companies an incentive to modify their products to provide features that customers want. By contrast, false advertising interferes with decision-making and hinders competition.
Tweens have their own money to spend, and parents report that children play an important role in family buying decisions. Because kids are an important part of the marketplace, they often are the targets of advertising and marketing programs. The result is that American kids see ads wherever they go.
The four components of the campaign (a
game-based website at Admongo.gov,
sample ads that can be used in the classroom; a
free curriculum, and teacher training videos) are designed to help students learn to ask three key "critical thinking" questions when they encounter advertising:
- Who is responsible for the ad?
- What is the ad actually saying?
- What does the ad want me to do?
While I personally used authentic ads that children know (and strangely love), I appreciate that this program offers fictitious yet genuine-looking ads and videos for classroom discussion. The advantage to the fake ads is that children can't assume they know the product
By: Stone Arch Books: Library Bound,
on 10/26/2010
So...you guys all know about the new Capstone Connect blog, right?
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By: Keith Schoch ,
on 5/4/2010
