ENG4C: Unit 3
Modern Day Activism:
Raising Awareness through Ad Campaigns and Social Media
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Big Question: How can I persuade others to take action on an important issue?
Is Knowledge Always Power?
Social media can be a powerful tool to encourage awareness about issues which are important and deserve attention. No longer do activists have to rely simply on fundraisers, events, and pamphlets to spread the word. Through tools like Twitter and Facebook, they can get people all over the world to pay attention through short “viral” videos, catchy hashtags, and posts neatly tailored to match our sometimes short attention spans. However, some critics of these social media movements claim that such posts don’t really do much to engage people in the cause being promoted. Crisis Relief Singapore put out an ad which gave voice to this concern about the shallowness of social media campaigns (Gorence). Read about the ad campaign in the following link, then answer the questions below.
https://www.boredpanda.com/liking-isnt-helping-crisis-relief-singapore/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
What is your reaction to this ad campaign? Do you think it does a good job convincing readers to take action? Why, or why not?
Do you agree with its message? Why, or why not?
Why do you think people might “like” a status or post, but not do anything to help?
Reaching Your Audience
Before beginning a social media campaign, advertisers and promoters need to have a clear idea of what their goal is, and who they are trying to reach.
In 2013, philanthropist Matthew Bishop started a social media trend called the “Unselfie” (Frank). The Unselfie was a way to promote “Giving Tuesday,” a campaign dedicated to encouraging people and organizations to make charitable donations (Ibid). The idea was simple: upload and share a picture of yourself holding up a sign indicating the charity that you will support on Giving Tuesday (Ibid).
Bishop’s campaign was successful for a few reasons.
He started with a clear sense of purpose by identifying a goal: get people to donate more money to charity.
He used a twist on a popular trend to get his target audience involved. Which group tends to be more active on social media sites? Milennials: the group with a reputation for taking a lot of selfies, but also the group known for promoting and encouraging social causes. Why not harness the popularity of selfies for the social good? Bishop knew his idea would appeal to the target audience he wanted to reach.
On social media, information comes in bite-sized pieces. As a promoter, you want to capture the attention of your audience before they are tempted to scroll down their newsfeeds to other items. This is why social media campaigns will often use the same strategies that you find in many advertisements. Like slogans, social media posts are short, simple, and attention-grabbing. To reach their audience, promoters need to communicate their message clearly and precisely.
Twitter gives promoters the perfect opportunity to reach large groups of people through bite-sized posts. On this social media platform, you only have 140 characters (letters, symbols, and spaces) to communicate your message, so you have to figure out how to make each character count.
In this unit, you are going to learn a few of the strategies that companies and organizations use to promote their products or their causes. You will then practice by writing fake “Tweets” using each of the strategies.
Common Advertising Strategies
Bandwagoning: This technique draws on our need to feel like we belong, and draws on our fears of missing out. People are encouraged or pressured to join in because a large group of people are doing it. Example: “Don’t miss out on your chance to be a part of this movement”, “Help us spread the word!”, “Join the thousands of supporters who…”
Sense of Urgency: This strategy encourages people to act right away, or they might lose an important opportunity. This method is a way for promoters to ensure that people act immediately, instead of putting off their decisions. Example: “Don’t delay – act now! What are you waiting for?”
Rhetorical Questions: Rhetorical questions are questions that do not need to be answered, because their purpose is simply to get you to imagine or think about a scenario. These questions are powerful ways to get your audience to put themselves in another person’s shoes, or to consider the possible outcomes of a situation. Example: What would a life without clean water look like?
Emotional Appeal: Ads tend to do an amazing job of appealing to our emotions and inner desires, in ways that we often don’t even recognize. To engage our emotions, promoters will sometimes illustrate what the consequences would be for standing by, or what the results would be for taking action. Example: “It doesn’t take much…”, “Don’t close your eyes”, “ With your support, we can create a brighter future”
“Challenges” or Contests: This strategy is common in the social media world, mostly because it is a very direct way of getting other people to participate. It’s one thing to inform your audience about an important issue, and it’s quite another to involve them. Challenges and contests invite people to be a part of the promotion process, so promoters don’t have to do all the work! Example: with the “Ice Bucket Challenge,” participants were encouraged to share videos of dumping icewater on themselves in support of ALS awareness and fundraising. Also, companies and organizations will sometimes create a contest and ask people to retweet or share posts to win a prize.
Activity
It’s your turn to practice applying these strategies! Imagine that your goal is to get high school students to volunteer and complete their 40 hours of community service. For each of the strategies that you have learned above, write down a fake “tweet” (do not post online) of a maximum of 140 characters in support of that cause. You can find a character counter in a standard word or google doc application. Hashtags and usernames are included in the 140 characters.
Cause you’re promoting:
Strategy
Tweet
Bandwagoning
Sense of urgency
Rhetorical questions
Emotional appeal
Challenges or contests
The Public Service Announcement
In this section, you will learn about Public Service Announcements, and you will explore a few examples. You will also learn how to create dialogue.
A Public Service Announcement is designed to inform the public about a specific issue and motivate them to take action. Sometimes, PSAs will create “shock value” to get their viewers to understand the seriousness of an issue. Statistics are also commonly found in PSAs, as they help raise awareness by informing the public with relevant data. PSAs come in the form of print ads, radio announcements, or TV clips.
Before-Watching Questions
Think of an example of a PSA that you remember watching or reading. Was it successful in getting people to care about the issue and/or change their behaviour? Explain.
During-Watching Questions
Watch the following clip:
http://bit.ly/1s4MCxo
Who is the target audience for this PSA? Explain.
What is the main message behind this PSA? Explain.
How does this PSA try to shock viewers?
After-Watching Questions
How does this PSA encourage changed behaviour or a new perspective?
Which advertising strategies from this lesson apply to the PSA you just watched? List the strategies which apply and explain how they apply.
For more examples, check out the following PSAs:
http://bit.ly/2crq6uW
This example uses statistics to encourage awareness and action
Assignment
You’re the head marketer for a social justice campaign. Your job is to get as many supporters as possible, and encourage both awareness and participation. How will you persuade others to take action? Choose the campaign that you would like to promote.
Your Campaign:
On a separate piece of paper, write at least 5 fake “Tweets” to get people on board with your campaign.
Your fake tweets must be no more than 140 characters long
They must use the advertising strategies from your lesson.
Create a promotional flyer for your cause
Your flyer must present one clear message which stands out from the rest of the details on the page
It must include at least 3 pieces of specific, relevant facts or statistics to support that message and inform others about your chosen cause.
Reminder: all research must include in-text citations and a Works Cited page. For the purposes of this assignment, you may submit footnotes and your Works Cited page on separate sheets from your flyer.
It must persuade others to take specific action and outline how they can get involved
It must be neat, well organized, and visually appealing. Consider your choices of font, colour, images, and layout. You may use Canva.com or any other software application which you are familiar with.
You must have licensing permissions for all of the images on your poster, and you must cite the image if attribution is required. A good source for licensed images is http://www.pixabay.com
Create an audio recording or a video clip for a Public Service Announcement for your cause
Your audio recording or video clip must be a minimum of 30 seconds to a maximum of 2 minutes long.
It must communicate a clear message about your cause
It must persuade others to take action
Evaluation of Social Justice Campaign
Criteria
Level R
Level 1
(50-60%)
Level 2
(60-70%)
Level 3
(70-80%)
Level 4
(80-100%)
Knowledge
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate an
understanding of the social justice cause that you are promoting.
Promotional flyer includes specific
details to support main message.
Insufficient evidence of student work
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate
limited understanding of the social justice cause that you are promoting.
Promotional flyer includes few details to support main message.
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate
some understanding of the social justice cause that you are promoting.
Promotional flyer includes some details to support main message.
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate
considerable understanding of the social justice cause that you are promoting.
Promotional flyer includes considerable details to support main message.
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate a
thorough understanding of the social justice cause that you are promoting.
Promotional flyer includes thorough details to support main message.
Thinking
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate
creative thinking in reaching target audience.
Ad campaign package communicates a clear, main message and clearly outlines how the target audience can take action or get involved.
Insufficient evidence of student work
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate limited creative thinking in reaching target audience.
Ad campaign package communicates a clear, main message and clearly outlines how the target audience can take action or get involved with limited effectiveness
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate some creative thinking in reaching target audience.
Ad campaign package communicates a clear, main message and clearly outlines how the target audience can take action or get involved with some effectiveness
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate considerable creative thinking in reaching target audience.
Ad campaign package communicates a clear, main message and clearly outlines how the target audience can take action or get involved with considerable effectiveness
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA demonstrate thorough creative thinking in reaching target audience.
Ad campaign package communicates a clear, main message and clearly outlines how the target audience can take action or get involved with a high degree of effectiveness
Communication
– Good command of grade appropriate conventions – Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA are free of spelling errors and grammar mistakes.
Insufficient evidence of student work
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA contains a considerable degree of spelling and grammar mistakes. Major editing required.
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA contains many spelling and grammar mistakes Some editing is required.
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA contains a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Minor editing is required.
Fake tweets, promotional flyer, and PSA is completely (or almost) free of spelling and grammar mistakes.
Application
Fake tweets apply advertising strategies from lesson.
Promotional flyer is well organized and visually appealing.
PSA is required length.
Insufficient evidence of student work
Fake tweets apply advertising strategies from lesson with limited effectiveness
Promotional flyer is not organized and is not visually appealing
PSA does not meet the required length
Fake tweets apply advertising strategies from lesson with some effectiveness
Promotional flyer is somewhat organized and is visually appealing
PSA almost meets the required length
Fake tweets apply advertising strategies from lesson with considerable effectiveness
Promotional flyer is organized and is visually appealing
PSA meets the required length
Fake tweets apply advertising strategies from lesson with a high degree of effectiveness
Promotional flyer is well organized and is visually appealing
PSA meets the required length
Works Cited
Frank, Robert. “Forget the Selfie: Time for the ‘unselfie'” CNBC. CNBC, 03 Dec. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2016. .
Gorence, Amanda. “‘Liking Isn’t Helping’: Powerful Ad Campaign Addresses ‘Facebook Philanthropy’ – Feature Shoot.” Feature Shoot. Feature Shoot, 12 Dec. 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2016. .
Packwood, Hayden. “Eye-opening Video Will Make You Think Twice before Texting and Driving.” KPNX. Tenga, 26 Aug. 2016. Web. 22 Sept. 2016. .
“PSA – Child Poverty Canada (You Made a Promise).” YouTube. Keep the Promise Canada, 18 Sept. 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2016. .
WJBFProducers. “Dramatic Texting and Driving PSA.” YouTube. WJBF and One Hour Optical, 07 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2016. .
Zoost, Steven Van, Curtis Petrie, Ann Varty, and Melanie White. “Laying Out Your Communication” From Txt to Talk: Communication Skills for Today and Tomorrow. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 68-77. Print.