An episode from The Alabama Experience documentary series
This program might be used in English, marketing, journalism, sociology, business, or media arts classes. It also might be appropriate for school organizations including FBLA, a journalism or marketing club, career programs, etc. Program length: 26:40. This program can also be shown in two segments. A good stopping point for the first segment is at 14:28 into the program, when the man on screen says "Let's take it to the client and get it approved."
This program follows an advertising campaign from start to finish. Golden Flake has commissioned Steiner/Bressler Advertising in Birmingham to help it sell more potato chips in Florida. The ad agency has to devise a plan to get people interested in the chips. And then the agency has to create television and print ads that execute the plan. Viewers will see what happens behind the scenes at an advertising agency.
This program will help students learn about art, writing, and marketing career opportunities in advertising. It may also help students become more savvy consumers as they learn how campaigns are designed to persuade them to make a purchase.
1. Have students tell about their favorite commercials. (Maybe they'd like to sing the jingle or theme song for the class.) What makes these commercials memorable? Can they think of commercials that seem like they were specifically made for people their age--high school students?
2. Have students talk about their least favorite commercials. What makes them obnoxious? Does it seem like these commercials are made to be irritating on purpose?
3. It's said in this show that "advertising is everywhere." Have students discuss this. Can they think of products that aren't advertised? Can they think of television channels that don't run ads (PBS, C-Span, for instance)? What's the strangest place they've ever seen an ad? (A man wearing a sandwich sign, a matchbook cover, a sky writer.)
4. As the students watch this program, have them list the different jobs they see people performing at the ad agency. (artists, directors, photographers, editors, secretaries, etc.) Talk about the education and training they think it might be necessary for these people to have.
5. Have the students see if they can figure out who is in charge of this ad campaign by watching the program. (John Zimmerman, president and creative director of the agency, supervises this campaign.)
1. What's meant in the program when it's said that all advertising campaigns are evolutionary? (They change as people at the agency make suggestions about the strategy and the ads.) Are any classes or activities at the school "evolutionary?" Can students think of school activities that would be better if they were evolutionary--if people talked about them and changed them as they progressed? (This is similar to the notion of "cross fertilization" that's mentioned in the program, where people on other projects offer ideas about the ad campaign.)
2. In the program John Zimmerman said he spent time making pizzas and pumping gas so he could learn about his client's products. Ask students why they think that's useful. (It would be hard to sell a product if you didn't know its qualities.)
3. According to this program, what's a marketing strategy? (A single sentence that explains what the agency is trying to accomplish in the campaign.) What was the marketing strategy in this potato chip campaign? (To increase sales in Florida, they hoped to convince consumers that Golden Flake is the chip the locals like best.) Have students think of ad campaigns they've seen--Nike's "Just Do It" commercials, for instance--and see if they can determine the marketing strategy behind it.
4. Have your students plan and execute a "Burma Shave" sign campaign on the school drive. (If you're too young to know, Burma Shave signs were placed along a roadside so motorists would read one line of a "poem" on a sign as they drove past. "This street is smooth/Because it's paved/Your skin would be smooth/If you Burma Shaved.") Perhaps your campaign can promote a school activity, a drug education program, or foster support for a school team that doesn't get much support--the Scholastic Challenge team, for instance.
5. Usually ads try to get us to do something--vote for a particular candidate, buy a certain kind of car, give to a charity. Can students think of ads that don't call us to action?
(A typical example would be "institutional" ads that are designed to enhance an organization's reputation or image. Many such ads can be seen on Sunday morning news shows for General Electric, Archer Daniels Midland, and BASF.) What would students include in an "institutional" ad about the city they live in? About their school?
6. Have your students take on an advertising project for an organization or activity on campus: a school musical, a basketball tournament, a local charity event. Have your students follow the example set by the people they've seen in this program.
A. Familiarity: First the ad agency learned about the product so they would know how to represent it and who would be interested in purchasing it. Your students should visit rehearsals for the musical, for example, so they will know more about it.
B. Mission Statement: Advise the students to come up with a single statement that will express what they want to do. It should be more than "To sell tickets to the musical." Better: "To sell tickets to the musical by presenting it as a lively, entertaining event that showcases talented school artists."
C. Media selection: How will you express your mission statement? Posters? Flyers? Morning announcements on the PA? An ad in the school newspaper? Remember--each of these should reflect the mission statement.
D. Client relations: Some students in the project should be assigned to working with the client. You want to make sure your ads for the musical suit the performers.
E. Execution and placement: Your artists will have to make the posters and write the announcements. Other students will have to make sure the posters are up in places that attract a lot of attention.
F. Evaluation: After the campaign, discuss how effective it was. If tickets did not sell well, can you figure out why? Are there elements of your campaign you would change if you had it to do over again?
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