Insect Advertisements

What's cool about a bug?

Persuasive writing is a skill that children will learn in school and will need throughout their lives. Writing is very often used to convey an opinion or to convince the reader to honor a request or change their behavior—and advertisers are extremely good at this style of writing. By studying advertisements and then creating their own ads for what at first seems like a tough sell (cute, cuddly bugs), children will not only practice persuasive writing, but they will also grow more familiar with some of the tricks that advertisers use to “lure us in”. In addition, students will learn to use printed materials (books, magazines, nature guides) as important references and will have to study the characteristics of their chosen insect to better understand how to advocate for it. And by focusing on an insect’s positive qualities, children can come to appreciate every living thing as an important part of our ecosystem.

Preparation

Gather the materials. If you have not already done so and have the opportunity, it might be helpful to first bring students outside and do the Bugs Share Your Habitat or My Observation Journal activity.

Suggested Materials

Several magazines of different kinds
Paper
Colored pencils, markers, crayons
Insect ad sample (Click here for PDF)

Optional Materials

Field guides

Opening Discussion

Ask your students to list some of the insects, spiders, worms and other bugs that they saw outside. What other bugs have they seen before? Write all of these critters down on a piece of chart paper or a chalkboard.

The Challenge

Create an advertisement that tells the world how great your bug is!

Doing the Activity

Divide your class into teams of 2-3 for this activity.
Use the list of bugs that the group came up with in the opening discussion to choose the advertising subjects from. You can either have teams choose a bug from the list or you can randomly assign bugs for them to focus on (ex. write names down on pieces of paper and have teams draw a name out of a hat).
Show teams the pile of magazines you have collected. Ask them to look at the advertisements and write down some of the words and methods that advertisers use.

Let’s Talk About It

After students have spent 10–15 minutes researching with the magazines, gather everyone together to talk about what they have discovered. What are some of the words that advertisers often use to try to sell their products? Are there certain kinds of pictures that they use? If you would like, show your students the sample advertisement included with this activity (Click here for PDF).

Build On What They Talked About

Have teams brainstorm all of the positive qualities about their bug. If they are having a hard time coming up with any, ask them some leading questions, like “What does your bug eat?” (ex. spiders eat other insects that we might not want buzzing around us); “Is there anything that eats your bug?” (ex. some larger animals wouldn’t be able to survive without certain insects, worms, etc. in their diet); etc. You may need to have some teams do further research with field guides, encyclopedias or the Internet.

After teams have done all of their brainstorming and research, have them create their print advertisement on a large piece of paper. When they are finished, post these ads up for the rest of the class to see.

Suggestions

If it is an election year, you could talk about political advertisements – non-negative ads are often all about the positive qualities of a candidate.
The word “bug” is commonly used to refer to any small critter like insects, spiders, worms, pill bugs, etc. This activity uses this term in the same way. But scientifically, “bugs” are a specific kind of insect (ex. aphids are “true bugs” – ants are not). Insects all have 6 legs – spiders have 8 legs and are not insects, but “arachnids” along with scorpions, ticks and mites. Worms have no legs and are not insects either. And pill bugs (also called “wood lice”, “sow bugs” or “roly-polies”) are none of these—they are actually crustaceans (like crabs and lobsters)! A scientific term that refers to all of these creatures (except worms) is “arthropods”.