Teaching Suggestion For Using The Cell Phone Ad

1. Tell your students they are going to view a commercial
for cell phones. This particular ad is rather old: cell phones
are no longer marketed in this way.

2. Write the words AUDIO and VIDEO on the board or on
an overhead.  Ask your students to define each word.

3. Explain that before a commercial is filmed, writers sit
down and carefully choose the words they will use.  Next
they will finalize their words on a script.  This particular
script uses two columns: the left hand column will be
labeled VIDEO and the right column AUDIO.  The script
is written into the right hand column under AUDIO.

4. Divide your class in half.  One half of the group will
listen to the cell phone ad with their eyes closed. After it
has concluded, they will open their eyes and make a list
of all of the things they heard.

5. The other half of the room will get to both watch and listen.
They should begin to notice visual techniques: camera shots
(wide angles, close ups) camera angles, camera moves, setting, 
lighting, so forth.

6. Play the commercial.

7. Ask the listening group to share what they heard. You might
want to write what they heard on the board under the word AUDIO.
(Ask if anyone heard the sound of the wolf howling? If some say no,
you might explain that by watching it again, you can often times
pick out additional details that you missed the first time)

8. Next, play the commercial again--this time allowing the listeners
to see what they could not see the first time. (Did the hear the wolf
this time? Did they hear pick out any additional details?)

9. Finally, you might explain that the process of producing a commercial
is a complicated one, with alot of attention to detail.  This particular
ad may have even been focus-group tested.

Can your students determine what ELSE is being sold other than cell phones?