What is an Ad?

Start by projecting the interactive activity in the student chapter What is an Ad? or have students access it.

Ask students to identify, in each pair of images, which one is an ad and which is not.

What makes it an ad? How do we know?

Prompting question: Why do people make ads? Is it different from why people take pictures or make cartoons that aren’t ads?

Some students may say that some of the images are real, while ads are not. Point out that in the last pair, the cartoon of the bus is not real, but it is not an ad, while the other is a real photograph of a bus where the bus itself is an ad.

Some students may not feel that the “Unplug” image is an ad, because it is not selling something. Point out that not all ads are for things you can buy.

Help students to understand that an ad is anything that that tries to get you to want something. For example, these ads want you to go to a U.S. National Forest, buy orange juice, and visit the zoo.

Ask students for other examples of ads; make sure they give enough examples to be sure that everyone understands that ads come in different forms and media but all serve the same purpose.

Now ask where we see or hear advertisements or commercials. (Examples: TV, online, before movies, newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards.)