ENGLISH

Year 4 Unit 7
Lessons 2–3

Topic: Types of advertisements

Investigating persuasive techniques in toy advertisements

Today you will:

►► understand how language features, images and vocabulary are used by advertisers
to persuade the audience.

Resources Key terms

Digital audience, audio (sound)
Video — Pinki’s disappointing day (1:35) effects, exaggeration, image,
Video — Hot Wheels advertisement (0:30) language features and devices,
Video — Buy me that too! (Consumer Union of U.S. Inc) noun group, persuasive
(3:02) techniques, prepositional
phrase, repetition, still and
Find and prepare
moving images, target
Sheet 2 — Advertisements: Types, purposes, audiences
audience, visual elements
and persuasive techniques (Saved copy from Lesson 1)
Sheet 3 — Annotated script For definitions and
explanations of terms, please
Highlighter
see the Glossary.
English exercise book

Lesson

Note
This lesson is completed over two sessions.

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

Discuss advertisements which target children

We have looked at how advertisers create

different ads, depending on their target audience.
Car advertisements would target adults; while ads
for fashion might target teenagers.

1. Read the questions and the sample answers provided. Write at least three more
responses in the spaces provided.
a. What types of advertisements target children?
For example: video games.

b. Where do you find advertisements that target children?

For example: children’s magazines.

c. How do the advertisers make the ads appealing to children?

For example: through songs or jingles.

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
 Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

Discuss experiences with toys and advertiser’s claims

Sometimes advertisers claim their

products do amazing things. Sometimes
the products do not live up to these claims.

2. View the Video — Pinki’s disappointing day.

In this video, you will learn that:
An advertiser is a person whose job is to promote a
product so people will buy it.
Claims are the statements that advertisers tell us
about a product they are promoting. They may promise
Video 1:35
that the product will work or say it is amazing.

3. Discuss the following questions with your tutor:

• Have you ever bought a toy or product that disappointed you?
• Has something like this ever happened to a family member or a friend?
• What type of product was it?
• How did the advertiser persuade you, your family member or friend?
• What happened? How did the product disappoint?
• Did the product live up to the advertiser’s claims?

View a section of a film clip that shows a toy advertisement

4. View the Video — Hot Wheels advertisement

as you read Sheet 3 — Annotated script.
This video is a 1960s television advertisement for
Hot Wheels racing cars.

Video 0:30

Sourced from: 60s TV commercials - Toys, GI

Joe etc. (Internet Archive) http://archive.org/
details/60sTvCommercials-ToysG.iJoeEtc CCBY3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

Examine persuasive language features and devices in an advertisement

Many persuasive language features and devices are used in advertising to make the
product seem bigger and better than it actually is.

5.   a. Use the key on Sheet 3 to identify:

• the noun groups that create a richer, more descriptive picture of the
Hot Wheels cars’ features
• the prepositional phrases that provide more details about where, what or
how the Hot Wheels cars perform
• the repetition that tells us again and again how good the Hot Wheels cars are
• the exaggeration, which overstates the Hot Wheels cars’ features.

b. Find one more of each of the persuasive language features or devices on

Sheet 3. Identify your examples in the same way they are shown on the Key:
• noun groups — highlight
• prepositional phrases — underline
• repetition — tick 
• exaggeration — draw a box around.

c. Choose one of the persuasive language features or devices from Sheet 3 and
write notes about the effect it has on you when you hear it in the advertisement.
For example, read Galico’s answer below.

I liked the repetition of the words ‘Lap after

lap after lap’. It made me think that if I had
a Hot Wheels car, it would be powerful
enough to go for a long time. I would be
able to play all day long with it. I want one!

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
 Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

Examine images and visual elements in an advertisement

6. View the first part of the Video — Buy me that too!

up until 0:57, when the presenter finishes saying the
words, ‘Look easy?’.
This video examines how advertisers use persuasive
language features, visual elements, audio effects and
still and moving images to persuade an audience.
This video then examines if the claims made by the Video 3:02
advertisers about their product are misleading. Buy Me That Too! Copyright 1990 by Consumers Union of U.S.,
Inc., d/b/a/ Consumer Reports, Yonkers, NY 10703-1057, the
nonprofit publisher of the Consumer Reports family of products
and services. Reproduced with permission for educational, non-
commercial purposes only. www.ConsumerReports.org.

a. Record your responses on Sheet 2 — Advertisements: Types, purposes,

audiences and persuasive techniques with the types, purposes, audience and
persuasive techniques used in the Typhoon II advertisement.

Note
If you are completing Sheet 2 digitally, save a copy on your computer
now. Otherwise, after the lesson, keep this sheet in a safe place
because you will use it in future lessons.

b. Discuss with your tutor whether you would like to own a Typhoon II.

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

7. View the first section of the Video — Buy me that too! again, from 0:35 to 0:57,
when the presenter finishes saying the words, ‘Look easy?’. This time, watch the
video with no sound. Pay close attention to the still and moving images used in the
advertisement.
a. Choose one of the images or visual elements used in the Typhoon II
advertisement and write notes about the effect it has on you when you see it in
the advertisement. For example, read Pinki’s answer below.

I loved the way the Typhoon II made

360-degree turns in the advertisement.
It seemed to be going so fast and was so
precise in its movements that it made me
want to try it. I want one too!

Examine audio effects in an advertisement

8. Listen to the first part of the Video — Buy me that too! again, from 0:35 to 0:57,
when the presenter finishes saying the words, ‘Look easy?’. This time, don’t watch
the screen. Listen closely to the audio and sound effects used in the advertisement.
a. Choose one sound or audio effect used in the Typhoon II advertisement and
write notes about the effect it has on you when you hear it in the advertisement.
For example, read Galico’s answer below.

I loved the music at the beginning.

It started the advertisement off in
a very exciting way. It made the
toy sound like it would be very
powerful and fun to use.

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
 Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

Examine the effect on the audience of an advertisement

9. Think about the advertisement as a whole. What is the combined effect of the
language, visual and audio (sound) elements in the advertisement?
a. Write two or three sentences explaining the effect the advertisement has on you
when you view it. Use your notes from tasks 7 and 8. How did the combined
effect of the language, the images and the sound make you feel? Use some
evidence from the advertisement to support your viewpoint.

View a section of a film clip which evaluates the toy

10. View the rest of the Video — Buy me that too! (0:58–3:02).
a. What do you think about the Typhoon II toy now that you have seen the children’s
evaluation of it? When the children tested the toy, did it live up to the claims made
in the advertisement?
b. Write a sentence to explain what this tells you about the persuasive techniques
(language, sound and visual) used in advertisements in your English exercise
book.

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C2C Independent Learning Materials
Year 4 English Unit 7 Lessons 2–3

Hot tip

r


Reflect on persuasive techniques

The Video — Buy me that too! showed

the advertiser’s claims about the Typhoon
II and then showed us the reality of how
the toy performed when the children tried it
out. Do you think the advertiser is being fair
and honest? Should the Typhoon II have
performed better than it did?

11. Discuss with your tutor what you know about how the persuasive techniques used in
the advertisement may be false or make the Typhoon II seem better than it is.

Spelling
Refer to your spelling materials.

Reading
Remember to complete your daily reading. You can read when you first wake up, during
free time or at bedtime.
At the end of your daily reading time, reflect upon:
• your enjoyment level
• interesting points about your reading and the text.

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C2C Independent Learning Materials