Identifying and Understanding the Use of Testimonials in Advertising

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences, conclusions, and/or generalizations drawn from the text.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.

Analyze the structure of the text through evaluation of the author’s use of specific sentences and paragraphs to develop and refine a concept.

Analyze the influence of the words and phrases in a text including figurative and connotative, and technical meanings; and how they shape meaning and tone.

Evaluate authors’ argument, reasoning, and specific claims for the soundness of the arguments and the relevance of the evidence.

Analyze two or more texts that provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.

Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences, conclusions, and/or generalizations drawn from the text.

Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.

Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept.

Determine how the author uses the meaning of words or phrases, including figurative, connotative, or technical meanings, in a text; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

Objectives

Students will analyze the use of propaganda techniques, particularly testimonials, in nonfiction text. Students will:

• identify stated claims, facts, reasoned judgments, and opinions across texts.
• identify the use of testimonials.
• cite evidence from texts to make assertions, inferences, generalizations, and to draw conclusions about the use of testimonials.

Essential Questions

• How do strategic readers create meaning from informational and literary text?
• What is this text really about?
• How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?
• How do readers know what to believe in what they read, hear, and view?

Vocabulary

• Author’s Purpose: The author’s intent either to inform or teach about something, to entertain people, or to persuade or convince the audience to do or not do something.
• Inference: A judgment based on reasoning rather than on a direct or explicit statement. A conclusion based on facts or circumstances; understanding gained by “reading between the lines.”
• Propaganda Techniques and Persuasive Tactics:Propaganda techniques and persuasive tactics are used to influence people to believe, buy, or do something. Students should be able to identify and comprehend the propaganda technique and persuasive tactics listed below:
  • Testimonial: An attempt to persuade the reader by using a famous person to endorse a product or idea (for instance, the celebrity endorsement).

  Duration

  50–100 minutes/1–2 class periods

  Prerequisite Skills

  Prerequisite Skills haven't been entered into the lesson plan.

  Materials

  The materials for this lesson were chosen because they are examples of testimonials. Teachers may substitute other materials or texts to provide a range of reading and level of text complexity.

  • list of propaganda techniques
    www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/teachers/pdf/propaganda.pdf
  • testimonial technique
  • several ads that use the testimonial technique
  • visual of Star Power ad
    www.nitrolicious.com/blog/2009/06/01/louis-vuitton-core-values-campaign-sally-ride-buzz-aldrin-jim-lovell/
  • “Testimonial” from ChangingMinds.org
    http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/testimonial.htm

  Related Unit and Lesson Plans

  Related Materials & Resources

  The possible inclusion of commercial websites below is not an implied endorsement of their products, which are not free, and are not required for this lesson plan.

  Related materials and resources haven't been entered into the lesson plan.

  Formative Assessment

  • Keep the focus of the lesson on propaganda techniques, particularly on testimonials. Based on the activities and participation in the discussions, evaluate individual students and determine who needs additional help. Use the following criteria to determine if students have met the goals of the lesson:
    • Student can identify stated claims, facts, reasoned judgments, and opinions across texts.
    • Student can identify the use of testimonials.
    • Student can cite evidence from texts to make assertions, inferences, generalizations, and to draw conclusions about the use of testimonials.

    Suggested Instructional Supports

    Scaffolding, Active Engagement, Modeling, Explicit Instruction

    W:	Help students analyze and use propaganda techniques and learn to identify examples of faulty reasoning, such as testimonials.
    H:	Engage students by having them analyze ads to identify techniques used to appeal to consumers.
    E:	Have students discuss examples of nonfiction texts, both historical and modern, that use testimonial as a propaganda technique.
    R:	Have students prepare an ad that uses a testimonial effectively and explain why a particular historical figure is an appropriate choice for the ad.
    E:	Have students provide written commentary about ads to reinforce understanding of how testimonials are used.
    T:	Provide materials at various levels of complexity to enable all students to achieve understanding.
    O:	The learning activities in this lesson provide for large-group instruction and discussion, small-group exploration, partner interaction, and application of the concepts.

    Instructional Procedures

    • Name calling: an attack on a person instead of an issue
    • Bandwagon: an appeal that attempts to persuade the reader to do, to think, or to buy something because it is popular or because everyone else is doing it
    • Red herring: an attempt to distract the reader with details that are not relevant to the argument
    • Emotional appeal: an attempt to persuade the reader by using words that appeal to the emotions instead of to logic or reason
    • Testimonial: an attempt to persuade the reader by using a famous person to endorse a product or idea
    • Repetition: an attempt to persuade the reader by repeating a message over and over
    • Sweeping generalization: an oversimplified statement about a group based on limited information
    • Circular argument: the use of a conclusion as proof of an argument
    • Statistics: an attempt to persuade the reader by stating how many people think something is true

    After a brief discussion of the techniques, ask students to re-evaluate the ads used in the beginning activity. Have students identify examples of the strategies on the list.

    Ask students to focus on the technique of testimonial (an attempt to persuade the reader by using a famous person to endorse a product or idea). Have students read, or summarize for them, the information in the article about testimonials (www.propagandacritic.com/articles/ct.fc.testimonial.html).

    Ask students to recall examples of television or print ads that use testimonials (famous athletes selling shoes or appearing on a box of cereal). Remind students that a famous person doesn’t guarantee the quality of a product, but the advertisers hope that people will want a certain brand because of the celebrity associated with it. Ask, “How can an informed consumer determine the quality of a product?”

    Have students work in small groups to analyze ads that utilize the testimonial technique. Have them write answers to the following questions:

    • What is the purpose of the ad? (to persuade, teach, entertain, convince, inform, or compare and contrast)
    • Who is the intended audience?
    • Do you think the ad appeals to people other than the intended audience? If so, how?
    • Who is in the ad?
    • What do the people represent?
    • Why were the people chosen?
    • Is this ad successful? Why or why not?

    Collect the students’ ads and their attached commentary.

    Part 2

    Say, “Propaganda techniques are used to sell products and ideas, and often to call us to action. They may be used for a worthy cause, for financial gain, for political success, or for questionable causes. It is up to us to distinguish the purpose of the propaganda and the reaction that is appropriate for us.”

    Note: The initial image, featuring Sally Ride, the first woman in space, and astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell has appeared in magazines as a Louis Vuitton ad.

    Ask, “Why might the company have chosen the astronauts for the ad?” (associating the Vuitton travel bag on the hood of the pickup with extraordinary journeys, like that of the astronauts into space; to make buyers feel that they, too, are adventurous and courageous, like the astronauts)

    Say, “Now you will work in groups to create an ad that features a testimonial. You may create a print ad or an audio/visual presentation.” Provide the following guidelines:

    • The ad should feature a person from history.
    • The person in the ad may endorse a product or a cause or an organization, such as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
    • Target the ad to a specific audience.
    • Write a brief explanation of why you chose this individual and what qualities of this person you want to transfer to the product or organization in your ad.

    Walk around as students are working and help them with any problems in understanding what a testimonial is. Also, if students have difficulty thinking of a figure from history, suggest a few ideas, such as Franklin Roosevelt, Edgar Allan Poe, or Amelia Earhart. Tell students that when they think about a product or an organization, they should also think about the testimonial individual’s personality, interests, and accomplishments. Remind students that the focus of the assignment is on the idea, the ad, and the audience.

    Have students display or present their group ads using testimonials. Have students do a gallery walk to analyze print ads. Encourage students to ask questions and comment after audio/visual presentations. Before explaining the group’s reason for choosing a particular historical individual, ask students to discuss the choice. Ask one of the group members to read aloud the group’s reason for its choice and the qualities of the person that transfer to the product.

    Collect the explanations after all the groups have displayed their work or completed their presentations.

    Extension:

    • Refer students who are ready to move beyond the standard to the discussion “Testimonial” from the ChangingMinds.org site (found at http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/testimonial.htm). Ask students to summarize the main ideas of the article. (Problems of celebrity testimonials: celebrities transfer the credibility of the roles they play to the products or causes they support. Testimonials by “ordinary folks” and by experts whose names may not be known may have more value than those of celebrities.) Students may also find examples to support the ideas in the article.
    • Students who need more practice might do a matching exercise in which they match a celebrity and the qualities of the celebrity with a product and explain why the celebrity would be a good choice to endorse the product.