Peter Kvamme

Assignment 3

Section 6: Lesson Suitability

Cigarette smoking has a negative effect on the body. This can hardly be disputed, in

fact, “more than 40,000 studies have provided evidence on deleterious effects of cigarette

smoking” [ CITATION Bot93 \l 1033 ]. Junior High students are specifically an at risk population in

regard to tobacco use. Because most long-term smokers start around age 13 or 14, Dr. David

Kessier, former head of the FDA, has labeled smoking a “pediatric illness” (Rothenberger,

2008b). As teachers we need to examine the reasons that students begin smoking, and address

those reasons. Cigarette advertising is the logical culprit, and this assumption is backed up in a

Cornell University study that suggests “a causal relationship between cigarette advertising

campaigns and increased adolescent smoking” [ CITATION Bot93 \l 1033 ].

There are several reasons that tobacco advertising is particularly effective towards

adolescents. The study “What is Learnt Early is Learnt Well? A Study of the Influence of

Tobacco Advertising on Adolescents” went into depth and found that, “The fact that

adolescents are more susceptible to tobacco advertising, and are less familiar with the anti-

tobacco campaigns, could explain their less negative attitude to smoking and their high

cigarette consumption” [ CITATION Rom88 \l 1033 ]. Tobacco use in films, the current trend in

tobacco advertising, is particularly effective. It is suggested that “exposure [to tobacco use in

films] is associated with trying smoking, which supports the hypothesis that films have a role in

the initiation of smoking” [ CITATION Sar01 \l 1033 ]. If adolescents were to learn to critically

examine these tobacco advertisements, as they will be doing in this lesson, they would likely
become less susceptible to the advertising efforts. It is specifically for this reason that one of

the National Health Education Standards is, “Students will Analyze the influence of family,

peers, culture, media, technology and other factors on health behaviors”. In analyzing the

influence of the advertising, students would be better prepared to view advertisements

critically.

The second part of the quote from the “What is Learnt Early is Learnt Well?” article

about students not being familiar with anti-smoking advertising would also be addressed in this

lesson. The students will be researching anti-tobacco advertisements, and creating their own

anti-tobacco adversisement with the information they find. This part of the lesson will address

another cause of icreased adolescent smoking, as well as addressing another one of the

National Health Education Standards, “Students will Demonstrate the ability to access valid

information and products and services to enhance health”. The students will be graded on

their attempt to access valid information, and apply it to their anti-tobacco advertisement. The

project will also address many of the Minnesota Art Standards. Some of the Art standards this

lesson meets are “Demonstrate knowledge of the foundations of the art area”, “Create/make in

a variety of contexts in the art area using the artistic foundations” and “Respond to and critique

a variety of creations or performances using the artistic foundations”.

This lesson is suitable for the Junior High age level because it allows the students to

experience several different kinds of learning. The students first learn in a lecture setting, then

in small groups, and finally through working on individual projects. The students spend time

interacting with the teacher, and with their small groups. Interactive teaching is suggested as a

very significant teaching method, especially when addressing drug and alcohol abuse
(Rothenberger, 2008a). By allowing students to interact with different people through the

lesson you are encouraging them to be more actively involved than they would be in a more

static lesson composed of only lecture time.

Section 7: Difficulties

One possible difficulty with this lesson would be students who have already started

smoking would be less receptive to an anti-smoking lesson. This could be addressed by

focusing on the formal aspects of deconstruction an advertisement. If the formal aspects of

advertisements in general are addressed before moving on to tobacco advertisements

specifically the students would realize that this way of critically viewing advertisements has real

value. Students who have already started smoking may not stop smoking as a result of this

lesson, but hopefully they would at least critically analyze their decision to continue smoking. If

they are do not change their smoking habits, at least they are equipped to critically analyzing

advertisements for other drugs and products that might have a negative effect on their life in

the future.

Another potential difficulty would be having sufficient access to technology for this

assignment. The students would ideally have the option to create their anti-tobacco

advertisement digitally on the computer, and this may be difficult if there are more students

than computers. This difficulty could be addressed by encouraging the use of other methods,

such as mixed media/collage, to create the advertisements. If the teacher shows effective

advertisements made by students in previous years (or by the teacher if this is the first year)
using other methods, the students would be more receptive to using alternative methods to

the computer.

References:

Rothenberger, James H. (2008a). Lesson 10.1. PUBH 6003: Alcohol & Drug Abuse.

Rothenberger, James H. (2008b). Lesson 12.1. PUBH 6003: Alcohol & Drug Abuse.

Botvin, G. J., Goldberg, C. J., Botvin, E. M., & Dusenbury, L. (1993). Smoking behavior of
Adolescents Exposed to Cigarette Advertising. Public Health Reports , 217-224.

Rombouts, K., & Fauconnier, G. (1988). What is Learnt Early is Learnt Well? A Study of the
Influence of Tobacco Advertising on Adolescents. European Journal of Communication , 303-
322.

Sargent, J. D., Beach, M. L., Dalton, M. A., Mott, L. A., Tickle, J. J., Ahrens, M. B., et al. (2001).
Effect of seeing tobacco use in films on trying smoking among adolescents: cross sectional
study. BMJ , 1-6.