Media Literacy Tuesday

I suppose this will ultimately be labelled as a Post from the Past. In the past, it would have been posted on the Monday after the Super Bowl. But,with schools re-opening yesterday, I figured it would be better posted today. I suspect people had better things to do yesterday.

This was always a big concept for a colleague of mine and I supported her with doing the research and this post. It always seemed a little out of place because with a 6:30pm start to the Super Bowl, a lot of kids would be in bed by the time all the commercials had aired. But, I guess they’ll see them eventually.

If you’re concerned about Media Literacy, waiting until the Super Bowl is probably too late. It’s something that should have been done all along. Have you checked out the resources from the Association for Media Literacy?

This year was a bit different. With the new NAFTA, Canadian television stations were allowed to override the American commercials. Around here, the local CTV station did not broadcast the game so we watched it on the Detroit CBS affiliate so we did get the American commercials.

Anyway, here’s the original post, fact checked and updated to make sure the links are current and relevant.

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Could there be a bigger opportunity than the Monday Tuesday after the Super Bowl to talk about advertising and Media Literacy?

Who could forget this classic advertisement from 1984?

From yesterday, the commercial that I best remember would have been the Jason Alexander, err, Tide commercial.

Maybe the most interesting one and I’ll admit to missing it was the Reddit ad. They could only afford 5 seconds.

CBS has a page devoted to the commercials that it will show during its broadcast – http://www.cbs.com/superbowl/commercials/video/ – this should be your best source for the original content, right from the broadcaster. The link is there but I can’t get to it since it’s blocked in Canada. There’s a lesson there in itself.

If you’re still in need to seeing them all, check out this link.

Amazingly, there was a time when a media literacy lesson couldn’t be taught the day after Super Bowl.  You might have to record the commercials at home or wait for you media department to edit and distribute the commercials.  Increasingly in schools, YouTube and other media sources are unblocked, the actual advertiser is making the commercials immediately available.  And well they should to get the bang for their buck.  Today’s going price is $5M for 30 seconds. Update in 2021, they were $5.6M according to this article.

But, how do you actually plan for the lesson?

Frank Baker shares an excellent lesson plan just for times like this.

“Deconstructing a TV Commercial: Media Literacy” is a terrific lesson for investigating any commercial.  He has a page devoted specifically to the Super Bowl here.

With these resources and, certainly, the tools that we have available in the classroom, this is one of those teaching moments not to be missed.