To be an informed consumer, you need to be able to assess the claims made by advertisers.You need to practice asking questions and digging deeper to get to the truth.You will be working in groups to present an advertisement, discuss the claim the advertiser is making about the product, look for evidence for or against that claim and discuss the validity of the claim.

Online students will submit through Blackboard their Powerpoint slides AND a single-spaced Word Document that must be 740 - 750 words long (excluding title and names of students).

Warning

If you essentially copy your Word document contents and paste it onto your PowerPoint slides, your whole group gets 0 points.

Do NOT use animations on your PowerPoint slides.

Instructions:

(5 points)Select an advertisement that makes a possibly controversial claim about a product.Do not use an advertisement that has already had a settled lawsuit against it.Do not use an advertisement that was a lecture example.(See the list below.)

Use the Powerpoint template provided in Blackboard.Include the link to the advertisement.Answer these 5 questions:

1.(2 points)What specific claim is being made by the advertiser?Use the exact wording.

2.(4 points)Where did they get this information?(Look for fine print or more information on their website.Give details such as whether a survey or experiment was used, sample size, variables measured, etc.)

3.(4 points)Find an outside resource (competing company, scientific article, consumer report) that talks about this same issue and summarize the conclusion. (Similar to what the lectures show for Cheerios.)A lawsuit against a company is not a valid resource here.Pick a company that has not been part of a major lawsuit.

4.(4 points)What do you think? Could the advertiser's claim be true?What are some possible lurking variables? Explain why these might be relevant.

5.(8 points)Create an unbiased, fact-based, accurate advertisement for this product, based on what you learned in your research.This should look professional and appeal to the audience.It can either be a print ad or a video.This can be a Powerpoint slide, you can paste in a link, or you can upload a separate file to Blackboard when you upload the Powerpoint file.

(3 points)Visual quality of slides and the professionalism of the presentation will be judged.

Examples used in lecture may not be used:

Cheerios:whole grains and weight loss (but other Cheerios claims are ok, for example)

Yoplait:yogurt promotes weight loss

Pom Wonderful

Skechers toning shoes

Duracell vs. Energizer

Trident sugarless gum:recommended by dentists

5-Hour Energy:recommended by doctors

Charmin:more absorbent

Example:Silk Soy milkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCCNDMbo0fM

1. What specific claim is being made by the advertiser?Use the exact wording. Silk says soymilk has 0 cholesterol, is a perfect protein, can help your heart, and fortifies your entire body.

2. Where did they get this information?(Look for fine print or more information on their website.Give details such as whether a survey or experiment was used, sample size, variables measured, etc.)The Silk website stating their claims on soy being better for your heart.http://silk.com/healthy-living/plant-based-dietThey list a group of medical studies that also have small claims about the benefits of soy on the heart. This study they referencehttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16442400 uses test subjects that were only women who were post menopausal and were vegetarians for 2 or more years.

3.Find an outside resource (competing company, scientific article, consumer report) that talks about this same issue and summarize the conclusion.(Similar to what the lectures show for Cheerios.)http://time.com/10093/milk-soy-almond-rice/This Time magazine article claims that soy milk is "a protein-rich alternative to cow's milk but lacks in calcium. Soy has also been controversial in part because of disputed claims linking the phytoestrogen-rich soy to increased risk of breast cancer, but the dairy alternative is richer in vitamin B and has 10% of your recommended daily intake of folic acid, a B-complex vitamin. Soy has proven effective in lowering cholesterol, but Politi says you need a lot of soy in your diet to produce that effect. She suggests about 25 grams of soy a day, or about four to five soy products."

4. What do you think? Could the advertiser's claim be true?What are some possible lurking variables? Explain why these might be relevant. Soy products can lower your cholesterol if you consume enough of them, and lowering your cholesterol may be better for your heart.The study quoted on the Silk website used only older women who were established vegetarians.This might not apply to everybody.Any heart-related improvement could be due to qualities in those women (confounding.)

5.(I won't give you an advertisement example because I don't want to stifle your creativity.)