Activity: Fruit and Veggie Ads

Companies constantly market to children, trying to get them to try sugary snacks and treats.  Students can easily recall and recite products' jingles, slogans, or spokesperson.

In this activity, students will use their own powers of persuasion to create advertisements for items from their school garden.

Assignment:

• Begin with a discussion of advertising and persuasion. 
• Talk about how marketers try to convince their audience to try new products.
• Show examples of advertisements and ask questions, such as:
• What claims does the advertisement make?
• What imagery does it use to sell the product?
• In addition to the actual product, what attributes (i.e. friendship, happiness, comfort, etc) is the ad trying to sell?
• Who is the advertisement targeting? 
• Is it effective? Why or why not?
• Each student or team will each choose, or be assigned, a fruit or vegetable.  
• Students will research the health benefits of their particular fruit/veggie.
• Each student or team will create their own advertisement to convince and persuade their peers to try their fruit/veggie.  Students are encouraged to be creative by making their own video, print ad, or jingle.
• Students will present their finished advertisement to the class. 
• Students will vote or rank the persuasiveness of each advertisement.

Alternatives:

• Students can also create public service announcements boasting the importance of eating fruits and veggies each day.