Lesson plan 2 – Targeted ads
Targeted advertising, political arena.
The following arrangement is based on aspects from the tenth module of the MIK curriculum for teachers (UNESCO, 2021), the Swedish syllabus for the subject of art (Skolverket, 2022) and the syllabus for the subject of Design and Technology (Skolverket, 2022).
What – Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson, the aim is for pupils to be able to:
- Know what Cookies are and how personal data is collected and used to serve you targeted advertisement.
- Know that advertising is not just about getting you to buy something, it could also be about changing your opinion of something.
- How pictures can portray a message
How – Lesson activities
1. Talk with the pupils about “Cookies” regarding the internet. What do they know about it? Have they ever noticed that the same add, or a very similar one suddenly appeared in TikTok as well as YouTube? Have they ever gotten a prompt when entering a website to collect Cookies
2. Watch the following clip about Cookies (Utbildningsradion, 2023):
https://urplay.se/program/207309-surfarna-cookies
3. After watching the clip, let the pupils talk about their own experiences when it comes to adds following them or something talked about in the clip. Is it not only ads that adapt due to private data collection through cookies. Other websites such as Google, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube change their search-results and ads based on the data that is collected from you and the location the search is made from.
4. Talk with the pupils about “echo chamber” and how media algorithms will continue to serve you content to keep you on the platform, even if that content is harmful to you. An example of this could be if you watched a clip about the Illuminati, it´s most likely going to suggest more of the same, or similar topics (conspiracy theories) to you the next time you visit. This can be both good and bad depending on what´s being watched. This tie into something called “conformation bias” where you seek out, interpret and remember information that only confirms your existing beliefs. This is very prominent in today’s internet climate with all the algorithms and cookies following you.
5. After some discussion about why they do this, watch the following clip about online advertising (Crash Course, 2023):
6. After that, talk with the pupils about targeted advertising. It is advertisement directly targeted at a specific demographic that is more likely to buy or be sympatric to the political position portrayed. Political posters are often seen all around the city, and most of the time it´s also placed were the most likely target group lives. Example: Right wing, economy focused is more predominant in well of neighbourhoods and left wing in the poorer parts of society.
7. The demographic can be based on your interest, what you have been browsing, sex, or other personal information you spread about yourself when you are online. And they (websites) collect this data from cookies that they sell to advertisers. That way they are more likely to get a new costumer or sway someone on the verge to vote for them.
8. What could be done now is that the pupils can look up local political advertisements and analyse them. How does the picture convey the message?