Notice and wonder

Explore the image below. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Who is playing with the train set?

Analyzing advertisements for stereotyping

Stereotyping is when someone decides that a group of people like certain things or behave a certain way. Advertising companies use stereotypes in their advertisements to sell their products. The problem with stereotypes is that they can separate people into specific groups and excludes others.

Consider the following questions as you examine the following advertisements.

• Who is presented in this advertisement?
• Who does this advertisement stereotype?
• How are advertisement different from the image explored in the Minds On?

Perhaps you noticed that the advertisements above stereotype what kinds of toys boys and girls prefer. Someone might explore the advertisements and form the idea that girls enjoy dressing up and having tea parties, while boys enjoy playing with train sets. However, while this might be true for some these ideas are not true for everyone.

How can we create an advertisement that is inclusive or includes people from different backgrounds that more people can relate to?

Inclusive advertisements try to break down stereotypes. This means that many people are included instead of one group of people.

Change the advertisement

Select on of the advertisements you just explored.

How could you change the advertisement so that it does not stereotype a specific group?

How could you change the advertisement to be more inclusive?

Use the Inclusive Advertisement organizer or another method of your choice to plan your own version of the original advertisement.

Inclusive Advertisement

Use the organizer in the Action section to create your inclusive advertisement. You may create a poster, an audio clip, or use another method of your choice for your advertisement.

Interpreting media

Thinking about our learning helps us to become more independent media interpreters and creators. Reflect on your learning from this activity, and consider how knowing about stereotyping helps you to interpret media.

Complete Reflecting on Stereotypes in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document.

Reflection

How do you feel about what you have learned in this activity?  Which of the next four sentences best matches how you are feeling about your learning? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

Now, record your ideas about your feelings using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.