Media Literacy Lesson Plan Ideas: Smoking

1. How do companies market dangerous products? Have students get inside tobacco companies’ minds by creating an ad campaign for a new type of snack that is addictive, causes cancer, stains your teeth, causes bad breath, and creates breathing problems. Organize them into marketing teams, and charge them with advertising and marketing this new snack so that people will buy it. Have each team focus on advertising in one of the following media: movies, video games, celebrities, television, and magazines. If you are working with older students, give them restrictions on the kinds of marketing they can do (e.g., people cannot be seen eating the snack in advertisements, you have to be 18 to buy it, it can’t be advertised on television, it has to include a warning on the package, etc.). Have students present their ideas as storyboards, skits, posters, or jingles. When they’re done, lead a discussion on how this snack is like cigarettes. Do the cigarette companies use some of the same marketing tactics? How do they manage to successfully market something that is so dangerous and unhealthy?
   
   Note: Depending on your focus, you can also create teams that market to specific audiences. For example, they can target children, teenagers, or adults; sports fans, parents, or music lovers; etc.
   
   
2. What does smoking say about a character? Brainstorm archetypical television/movie/comic book characters (e.g., heroes, victims, villains, bystanders, superheroes, parents, kids, etc.) with students and come up with popular examples of each. Then have students decide which characters are likely to smoke and discuss why they think that is the case. Are there examples of characters who make smoking seem “cool” or “uncool”? How do students think that happens? If you have more time, have students make posters of characters looking “uncool” while smoking and then discuss how they accomplished that goal. Discipline-specific applications: This can tie into a discussion of literary characterization and stereotyping.
   
   
3. Have the class create a school-wide anti-smoking campaign. Break students into groups, and have them think about the kinds of advertising that catch their attention. Then have them use that information to create an informational campaign that includes P.A. announcements, radio jingles, computer screen savers, flyers, and a short film to show at an assembly. This campaign can provide information on current anti-smoking organizations, such as the truth and notobacco.org. Have older students poll the school for feedback on the campaign and gather statistics on smoking from their fellow students (e.g., how many actually smoke versus how many they believe smoke). Then have them talk about the difference between perception and reality. Collaborate with the principal/health teacher/nurse/student council to make this campaign a success.
   
   
4. Why are there so many laws surrounding cigarettes? What do the students know about what is legal and what is not? What do they know about the history of tobacco, smoking, and cigarette advertising? Make a list of questions that students would like answered (such as why you have to be 18 to buy cigarettes or why cigarettes can’t be advertised on television). Then break them into groups and have them research the answers. Have them create a website, movie, poster, newspaper, or lecture that they present to the class.
   
   
5. Do your favorite celebrities smoke? Have the class make a list of their favorite celebrities. Then have them bring in popular magazines, newspapers, movie posters, etc., featuring these celebrities. Assign celebrities to small groups, and have students research whether that person smokes in real life and whether he or she is seen smoking in movies, in magazines, and on the internet. Have each group present their findings to the entire class and discuss the following questions: By their actions, are these celebrities saying that smoking is okay? What do students think about role models who smoke?

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