Who's Hungry for a Snack?

Fifth grade just completed our persuasive writing unit. Learning how to convince someone to agree with your position has proven quite a challenge, and students worked hard to do so.  One of the most visible forms of persuasive writing is advertisements, and the class finished the unit with a snack food advertising campaign. I introduced students to the job of a copywriter and the idea of the creative brief, which is the key written item in an advertising campaign. Students broke into advertising teams, chose a snack food (Goldfish, Pringles, Lays Original Potato Chips, Animal Crackers, Cheez-Its, and Oreos), and commenced to taste test research to develop their campaign. Snacking for school work! Each student in the team was assigned to design one of three ads: a magazine ad, a billboard, or a television commercial. Students had already created commercials in Technology class, so they were professionals. The final campaigns were presented to the fourth grade class, our clients. Each snack food campaign had to "sell" its product and win over the fourth graders with all three ads and an effective speech. There was some serious competition occurring in our classroom! The ultimate winner was the Cheez-Its group, which won for the best marketing campaign. The favorite snack food in terms of taste, however, was Pringles. What a fun, memorable way to learn how to write and speak persuasively!