Media Literacy Assignment #1

Target Marketing in the Media

One of the things that continues to fascinate me about media today is the use of not only persuasion techniques by advertisers, but persuasion techniques to specific audiences. The purpose of this activity is to help students begin to look at messages in the media with a more critical eye, but to help them to become more aware of how they are being positioned in society by marketers, researchers, and advertisers, and what it means to be expected to behave and consume in a certain way.

1. To begin, students will compare advertisements in magazines directed at 2 specific audiences (ex. Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Seventeen, Redbook).
2. In flipping through the two magazines, they will consider the following questions:
- Who are their targeted audiences (consider age, gender, race, etc.)?
- How does the content of each magazine (photos, fashion spreads, illustrations, articles, headlines, etc.) relate to the advertising?
- Have the editors come up with different ways to develop advertising-friendly content? (If so, give
examples and discuss.)
- Do you think the advertisers in one magazine might approve more of the content in one magazine than advertisers in
the other? Give specific reasons.

3. As an addition to this assignment, students could examine advertising for television shows. Based on the television show you watch, consider the following questions:
- What is this show's target audience (consider age, gender, race, etc.)
- How does the content of the show (characters, plot, setting, etc.) relate to the advertising?
- Is there any product placement within the television show?

4. Finally, students will be asked to come up with an idea for a magazine that targets an untapped, niche market.
Things to consider:
- What would appear on the cover?
- What features would appeal to this demographic group while also appealing to companies
that might advertise?

5. Students will then design a cover page and five possible advertisements for a sample issue. The cover will highlight stories that might attract their target audience, and the advertisements can be existing or invented products that would likely be sold to their specific audience.

6. In addition, students will describe the thinking behind your decisions in an essay. Questions to consider in the essay:
What's the difference between mass marketing and target marketing?
How do companies get information about consumers?
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of target marketing for consumers?
Why do media outlets target people in the same way that product marketers do?