SUBVERT AD - RAISE AWARENESS

BILATERAL PROJECT "SUBVERT AD - RAISE AWARENESS. LET'S PLAN AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN ABOUT INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE!"

This project involving ESCOLA SECUNDÁRIA /3 DE PINHAL DO REI, MARINHA GRANDE, PORTUGAL, and LICEO MARIA-ADELAIDE, PALERMO, ITALY, aimed to encourage intercultural dialogue, civil awareness, creativity and innovation through the use of advertising language and to raise awareness of the influence of advertising's persuasive devices on young people.
Students were encouraged to develop an understanding of how advertising influences their own behaviour and value system, and they were guided in the analysis of advertising messages and techniques in order to create "counter ads".
Students also produced public service campaigns in an effort to change people's attitudes and behaviours and stimulate positive change.
This campaign used the effective techniques found in real ads but addressed to pressing social issues that the students discussed together:
INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
FIGHTING RACISM AND VIOLENCE
PROMOTION OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
CONTRIBUTION OF DIFFERENT CULTURES TO EUROPE'S HERITAGE AND LIFESTYLES IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIVING TOGETHER AND OF THE COMMUNITY WELL-BEING

The final products was the creation of COUNTER-ADS and PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGNS with images, slogans and videos as used in advertising.

The project integrated and used new multimedia technologies and the Internet (ICT).

2ND YEAR OF THE PROJECT

PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGNS?
Public Service Advertising is commonly defined as "Advertising that serves the public interest." The objectives are education and awareness of significant social issues in an effort to change the public's attitudes and behaviours and stimulate positive social change.

PSA MADE BY OUR STUDENTS

PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGNS MADE BY OUR STUDENTS:

ATE: Violence
ATROPOS: Discrimination against the disabled
ERIS: Homophobia
HECATE: Smoking
NEMESIS: Drugs
TONOS: Condoms and Sexual Health

All the films were evaluated and voted for the "best campaign video" and the final results were presented at both schools and the community;
The completed SARA project was evaluated.

TONOS - CONDOMS

BEST PSC

NEMESIS - DRUGS

HECATE - SMOKING

ERIS - HOMOPHOBIA

ATROPOS - DISCRIMINATION

ATE - VIOLENCE

COMENIUS SARA TEAM

BRAINSTORMING TO CREATE THE FILMS

Students had previous brainforming breafings and they made summaries of what they intended to film:

ERIS: Homophobia

MAIN TOPIC: Homophobia

MESSAGE SUMMARY:
2 homo couples (gay / lesbic) + 1 hetero couple
Demonstrate that there aren’t differences between a gay couple and a hetero couple.

COMPLETE TEXT OR MESSAGE TO BE FILMED:

IMAGES, PEOPLE, PLACES,A CTIONS:

HECATE: Smoking

MAIN TOPIC: Smoking

MESSAGE SUMMARY:
Every day smoking kills thousands of people in the world. We have to try to stop this massacre.

COMPLETE TEXT OR MESSAGE TO BE FILMED:
Only music.

IMAGES, PEOPLE, PLACES, ACTIONS:
Some scenes where people is smoking.
Pictures that show people afflicted by cancer or other diseases, consequences of smoking.

TONOS: Condoms and Sexual Health

MAIN TOPIC:Condoms / Sexual Health;

MESSAGE SUMMARY:
STD – “Prevention of sexual transmited deseases (STD’S) through the use of condoms”;

COMPLETE TEXT OR MESSAGE TO BE FILMED:
It’s not Stone Age…. It’s not a joke… It’s real, use condom!

-IMAGES, PEOPLE, PLACES, ACTIONS:
Dinosaur miniatures, LEGO characters, pictures of sadness and illness because of the STD’s, paper and homemade scenarios, taking photos and make a movie “framed”, OST is made with already existent songs.

NEMESIS: Drugs

MAIN TOPIC: Drug use

MESSAGE SUMMARY:
With this video we want to show the effect of drug in people’s lives. ( represented by a couple in this movie).

COMPLETE TEXT OR MESSAGE TO BE FILMED:
-Slogan: Could she have a better life? ( yes , without drugs);
-Background comment
What is a life with drugs? That’s what we’re going to show you… (The couple is taking drugs)

Drug changes
You need more and more money, and to earn it you must be disposed to do anything, even sell your body. (Angela prostitutes herself)
The video begins with a couple taking drugs together.
The boy begins to shop steeling and the girl begins to prostituting herself to earn money for drugs to her and her boyfriend.

There are going to be two final endings: the woman dies form an overdose leaving her boyfriend all alone; the woman becomes pregnant and leaves drugs she creates a happy family.

PEOPLE:
-Filipe + Angela – couple
-Joana – drug dealers
-Enza – woman taking drug
-Elena + Alessandra – prostitutes
-Emanuel – client

PLACES:
-train station; supermarket; park; bathroom; school

ATE: Violence

MAIN TOPIC: The main theme chosen is VIOLENCE.

MESSAGER SUMMARY:

COMPLETE TEXT OR MESSAGE TO BE FILMED:
Juliana and Guilherme are married. They have two children, Miriam and Andrea. Guilherme comes back home and beats Juliana because of his stress at work. He’s frustrated, so he decide to go out to let off steam. By chance he meets a girl and rape her. His children, who saw him beating their mother, do the same at school with other students. This is to show people that violence generates more violence.

IMAGES, PEOPLE, PLACES, ACTIONS:
Places: Guilherme’s house, FAE and school.

ATROPOS: Discrimination against the disabled

MAIN TOPIC: Discrimination against the disabled

MESSAGE SUMMARY:

COMPLETE TEXT OR MESSAGE TO BE FILMED:
Final slogan: “Discrimination is our great disability”

IMAGES, PEOPLE, PLACES, ACTIONS:
Black/white video with images, clips and slogans

I. Music: reading of a poem with a musical base (violin,…)
II. Sequences of photos or clips about an institute for mental or physical disabled men
Clips: bad weather, wind, disabled men and desolation, loneliness.
Photos: an old place (an institute, an old industry, a countryside…)
Music: reading of a poem from Edgar Alan Poe or Pessoa, about “normality”

Marinha Grande Meeting Evaluation

STUDENTS responded to the following questions by circling the answer that best represented their feelings about the project so far: 1 = very low; 5 = very high.

1) Did you enjoy the work group phase of the project in Marinha Grande?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (15%) 4 (23%) 5 (62%)

2) How would you rate the level of collaboration between you and your partners during the work in groups?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (21%) 4 (23%) 5 (56%)

3) How would you rate the level of communication within your group?
1 (0%) 2 (5%) 3 (13%) 4 (38%) 5 (44%)

4) Was there enough time to carry out the project activities?
1 (0%) 2 (3%) 3 (15%) 4 (33%) 5 (49%)

5) Are you satisfied with the final results of your group?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (5%) 4 (26%) 5 (69%)

6) Have you gained a better awareness of how PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING works?
1 (0%) 2 (3%) 3 (15%) 4 (28%) 5 (54%)


(only for Italian students)1)

1) How would you rate the experience of living with a Portuguese family?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (0%) 4 (21%) 5 (79%)

2) Do you consider this an important part of the project?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (5%) 4 (11%) 5 (84%)

2nd YEAR EVALUATION

1) Did the COMENIUS SARA PROJECT experience meet your expectations?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (8%) 4 (23%) 5 (69%)

2) Do you feel your English skills have improved?
1 (3%) 2 (10%) 3 (26%) 4 (28%) 5 (33%)

3)Did you gan a better knowledge of the other country's lifestyle?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (3%) 4 (36%) 5 (61%)

4)Did you gan a better knowledge of the other country's language?
1 (0%) 2 (5%) 3 (18%) 4 (28%) 5 (49%)

5)Would you repeat a COMENIUS PROJECT experience?
1 (0%) 2 (0%) 3 (5%) 4 (18%) 5 (77%)

SECOND YEAR

WORK FOR THE SECOND YEAR OF THE PROJECT:
- Investigation and study, by the students, of PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGNS, for them to develop an understanding of how advertising can reflect or influence their own social behaviour and can be used as prevention and change of social system of values.

EXCHANGE: ITALIAN CLASS VISITS PORTUGAL
The students will work in groups:
- each group choose a topic and a message that they feel important regarding intercultural, social and civic issues (intercultural dialogue, fighting racism and violence3, promotion of cultural diversity and active citizenship, the contribution of different cultures to Europe's heritage and lifestyles, improving the quality of living together, community well-being);
- each group will create its own PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGN, with images, slogans, music and messages on a final DIGITAL VIDEO (3 minutes).

UNTIL THE END OF THE PROJECT:
- students must evaluate the final DIGITAL VIDEOS and vote for the "most persuasive", "best image", "best video";
- the final results will be presented at both schools and the community;
- SARA project will be evaluated.

1ST YEAR EVALUATION OF THE SARA PROJECT

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

STUDENTS responded to the following questions by circling the answer that best represented their feelings about the project so far: 1 = very low; 5 = very high.


1) Did the project experience meet your expectations?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 3 (5.5%) 4 (33.3%) 5 (11.1%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (10%) 4 (35%) 5 (55%)

2) Do you feel your English skills have improved?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 4 (72%) 5 (27.7%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 2 (5%) 3 (25%) 4 (40%) 5 (30%)

3) Were the Portuguese / Italian language lessons useful?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 4 (50%) 5 (50%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (10%) 4 (55%) 5 (35%)

4) Have you gained a better understanding of how advertising works?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 3 (5.5%) 4 (11.1%) 5 (83.3%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA:1/2(15%) 3 (40%) 4 (35%) 5 (10%)

5) Has your perception of advertising changed?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 3 (16.6%) 4 (22.2%) 5 (61.1%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (10%) 4 (65%) 5 (25%)

6) Did you enjoy the work group phase of the project?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 3 (16.6%) 4 (27.7%) 5 (55.5%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (30%) 4 (55%) 5 (15%)

7) How would you rate the level of collaboration between you and your partners during the work in groups?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 2 (5.5%) 3 (22.2%) 4 (50%) 5 (22.2%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 1/2 (10%) 3 (20%) 4 (60%) 5 (10%)

8) How would you rate the level of communication within your work group?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 1/2 (11) 3 (16.6%) 4 (44.4%) 5 (27.7%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 2 (25%) 3 (15%) 4 (50%) 5 (10%)

9) Rate your level of collaboration with the teachers during the project work.
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 2 (22.2%) 4 (66.6%) 5 (22.2%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (40%) 4 (45%) 5 (15%)

10) Did the ads you produced express your creativity?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: 1 (5.5%) 3 (11.1%) 4 (11.1%) 5 (72%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 2 (25%) 3 (15%) 4 (30%) 5 (30%)

11) Would you repeat the experience?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: Yes (100%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: Yes (100%)

12) Before meeting your partners, did you have any negative preconceived ideas about their country?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: Yes (5.5%) No (94.4%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: Yes (55%) No (45%)

13) Were these ideas confirmed or not?
STUDENTS FROM PALERMO: Yes (94.4%) No (5.5%)
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: Yes (65%) No (5%) NA (30%)

14) How would you rate the experience of living with an Italian family?
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (10%) 4 (50%) 5 (40%)

15) Do you consider this an important part of the project?
STUDENTS FROM MARINHA: 3 (5%) 4 (35%) 5 (60%)

1ST PROJECT MEETING ACTIVITIES SURVEY

COMENIUS SARA PROJECT
PALERMO PROJECT MEETING
29 March – 09 April 2009
ACTIVITIES SURVEY

Portuguese students answered the following questions (1 represents the lowest and 5 the highest)

A. Did you like working on the project activities in Palermo?
4 (35%) 5 (65%)
B. Was there enough time to carry out the project activities?
3 (35%) 4 (30%) 5 (35%)
C. Did the members of your group work well together?
2 (15%) 3 (30%) 4 (20%) 5 (30%)
D. Are you satisfied with the final results of your group?
2 (5%) 4 (50%) 5 (45%)
E. Was your awareness of advertising raised?
3 (20%) 4 (70%) 5 (10%)

HOW?
“This experience was very rich. Now I’m more careful about the ads.”
“I’ve never worked with advertising before, at least so directly, and it was very interesting to make our own ads, with our own ideas and effort.”
“It showed the backstage of advertising world, everything what’s beyond the outdoors, the brochures, theads we have to face in our day-by-day.”
“Now I know more rules about advertising and we can see beyond the images.”
“We get a better interpretation and comprehension of the main aims of each ad.”
“...especially against child labour and fast food.”
“We used a lot of techniques of advertising.”
“I already was aware of ads “power” but now, after seeing all the works, I understand better how advertising can really be persuasive.”
“All this work made us more sensitive to the “advertising phenomenom”.
“The members of our group worked very hard!”
“Now I know how is hard to make a good advertising.”

TONOS ADS MADE IN PALERMO: ALCOHOL

Through these ads we decided to tackle a problem that affects most young people: alcohol.
We chose this topic to warn teenagers about the effects of alcohol: many social problems, violence, dependence, loss of identity, disorientation, unemployment and especially health problems which lead to death.
Our main purpose is to convince young people to make a right use of alcoholic drinks.
We chenged two original ads transforming them into an advertising campaign.
We maintained the same graphic structure in both ads and we only changed the slogan and image.

Using programmes like Photoshop and Fireworks in the first ad we modified the slogan from “playful” to “painful” thus indicating the lack of happiness and serenity; We made the girl's body full of bruises as symbols of violence and we also changed the bottle title “smirnoff” to “smirkoff” thus indicating the lack of smile when we drink and consume alcoholic drinks.

In the second ad we modified the slogan from “probably the best beer in the world” to “probably the best liver destroyer in the world”. As we can see the slogan is very similar, so we maintained the same structure criticizing the brand with its own idea.

Most times, people that usually drink have liver problems, so the liver is inside the caps in order to represent an image of a liver being eaten up and destroyed.

NEMESIS ADS MADE IN PALERMO: CARS

Through this ad we wanted to show that when we buy a car we don’t need to adopt a certain lifestyle because we buy what we like regardless of our status and income.
We have chosen a mansion as background and a Fiat Panda as a car that uses less polluting
energy sources (GPL) in order to show that rich people, who normally would buy expensive and polluting cars, could choose less polluting ones without worrying about brand names.
We have decided to draw the ad ourselves to give a personal touch to our work…

…we have also decided to paint the drawing so it could be more appealing to the public; and we have chosen “Lifestyle is not in your car” as a slogan because we think lifestyle is not in the car you buy.

HECATE ADS MADE IN PALERMO: SMOKING

We chose this topic, because smoking is a problem which affects a lot of people around the globe, not only young people but also old people. There has been an increase in young people smoking. Besides, smoking creates a lot of health problems. So we chose this topic, with the purpose to alert everyone.

Ads:
1 – “Why stop there?”
This image shows us that smoking takes away the most important things in our lives, and the man in the image is breathing away his life.
The slogan “Why stop there?” asks any person that reads it why we would throw away our lives just for some mere moments of pleasure.

(THIS AD WAS VOTED AS THE STRONGEST IMAGE!)

2 – “Don’t get hooked”
In this ad we use the expression “hooked” that is normally used when people are addicted to something.
And the hook in the image represents that addiction, as if we were fish and the bait of the fisherman was the cigarette.

3 – “Don’t get hooked” 2
The same as the other one before, but this time, instead of a cigarette we have on the bait a Camel, representing the trademark with the same name.
Also, on the back of the Camel there is a skull with crossbones, meaning that Camel cigarettes are dangerous.

ERIS ADS MADE IN PALERMO: CHILD LABOUR

Hello, good morning to everyone!!

We are going to show our work, concerning child labour and we chose this subject because it is a global problem: Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labour was used to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the beginning of universal schooling, with changes in working conditions during industrialization, and with the emergence of the concepts of workers' and children's rights.

We designed 3 ads.

The first one is a little baby that is scared about his own future. This ad was made using photoshop. We put the symbol of Nike in his head to mean that when the baby was born he was already a work tool. We used the Nike’s slogan “Just do it” changing it in “Just don’t do it” to fight against children’s exploitation.

The second one shows a man wearing a jacket and looking at his back where there is a slogan: “ you don’t wear just a jacket but also a child’s life”. With this slogan we want to convey the message that the jacket is very beutiful but it’s made by a child. So we would like to invite people not to buy something only for its good looks but to think about what’s behind it.

(THIS AD WAS VOTED AS THE STRONGEST SLOGAN!)

The last one is drawn from a Converse picture. We changed the brand of All Star into a brand with a child. The slogan “There’s a long way to go, don’t trample on your future” wants to explain that you must think before you buy it. We don’t trample on our future and children represent it.

ATROPOS ADS MADE IN PALERMO: ANIMAL TESTING

Bloody Tears

We decided to present you an ad about this theme because we think it is important to make people think about the consequences of their actions.
We, human kind, are always trying to achieve our so beloved perfection, the idea of a perfect body, perfect skin, perfect hair... but we don’t even think about what’s behind all that perfection. We often put our aims above everything else, we think we can overpower every creature, we think we are the master race, we think we can do everything and we can use all means to achieve our will. But think about it – is it worth all this cruelty? Is it worth using other living beings, torture them, kill them, use them just for getting a good shampoo or a good cream or a good eyeliner... Think again... is it worth?
We don’t think so and that’s why we have done this ad, to make you think, to show you what’s behind perfection.

(THIS AD WAS VOTED AS THE MOST PERSUASIVE!)

Miss rat

The idea of doing this work occured to us after watching some ads on the internet, one of those that inspired us the most, showed a woman grabbing a bottle, whose brand was ‘’torture’’, inside which there was a little mouse. So we used this idea and made an ironic ad in which the humans and the animals exchange their places.
Therefore, instead of a mouse inside the bottle and a woman grabbing it, we drew a human inside the bottle and a female mouse grabbing a bottle whose brand is ‘’Human kind’’.
We all think that it is important to talk about this theme because everyday thousands of animals are tortured and killed, used as lab mice, even for the most shallow things. But think about it, at least for once: and if it were we instead of them? That’s why we chose the slogan ‘’With Human Kind my skin is perfect, thank you Human Kind’’.

ATE ADS MADE IN PALERMO: FAST FOOD

Originally we began by presenting different ideas, and in the end we chose fast food.
From this idea, we researched on the Internet and we drew several sample designs, from which we chose two.
Then we planned the pictures to be attractive, next we painted them using computer software.
The group chose two images:
the first shows a man “eating the world”, the idea was to show Man’s responsibility in destroying his own health. Besides, through the slogan, we can communicate that this type of food, which can be eaten quickly, also makes people fatter worldwide.

The second image represents a fast food factory, trying to show that this type of food “manufactures” fatter people.

We hope that you have enjoyed our work!!

EM PALERMO

FOTOS DAS SESSÕES DE TRABALHO!

FOTO DO GRUPO NO HORTO BOTANICO!

GREETINGS FROM PALERMO

We're having a great time here in Palermo!

ACTIVITIES IN APRIL IN PALERMO

Portuguese PUPILS visit PALERMO, in SICILY, Italy, from 29 March to 9 April.
Together, the Portuguese and the Italian classes will:

* examine Ads and discuss the persuasive techniques being used;
* brainstorm a list of hurtful messages promoted in ads studied during the first phases of the project work, and choose some that they feel important;
* work to create ads that counteract the messages of mainstream advertising;
* choose the most effective way to communicate their counter-message with images, slogans, ideas....
* draft an ad;

The products will be shown in the school and will be added to the respective school web-sites and to this blog.

ACTIVITIES BEFORE APRIL

Each class will be parted in groups that will be encouraged to have contacts through e-mail with the partners.

Before they examine ads, students will first reflect upon what they want, as teenagers, will gather some information and compare this data to advertising analysis that we will do later in the project work.

Then pupils will:

* discuss what an ad is and learn about the persuasive techniques used by advertisements;
* have a notebook section for ongoing vocabulary acquisition.
* collect information by surfing the net, reading articles, interviewing and chatting
* identify the persuasive techniques used in print and TV ads and then analyse the messages of the ads they will compare these messages with their own values
* explore the ways in which companies directly target them
* be encouraged to develop an understanding of how advertising either reflects or influences their own behaviour and value system and will write a persuasive essay

Each national group will compare the materials of the corresponding groups to examine similarities and differences.

OUR STUDENTS' TEXTS ABOUT ADS - 4/5/19/11A/EVA

Values, all of us have them, and for sure, without them we wouldn’t live or, at least, our life wouldn’t be nothing but on empty existence, completely non-sense, we wouldn’t have nothing to control our behaviour, nothing too guide us, nothing to lead us neither any ideals to discuss and fight for.
However, neither in all Human Kind nor even in a little group the values of each person are the same, we all follow different lines of thought, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It is just necessary, because otherwise if our opinions didn’t follow different paths, our minds wouldn’t keep awake.
In fact, such a simple thing as smoking can become a big reflection, with different opinions between the group members. So while two of us, in spite of realising that smoking is bad to their health and to their body, and in spite of recognizing that they have to respect that some people don’t feel comfortable when they’re close to smoking people, claim that we have to respect both opinions, we have to accept that some people like to smoke, enjoy it and even have that need. On the other hand, some of us think that it isn’t that bad to smoke when people hang out with friends, once in a while, but that those people shall be aware of the danger of getting addicted, and some even think that we never should smoke because it’s not only bad for our health as for the health of people around us, and there is no way of avoiding become addicted.
However when talking about drugs all of us agree that it depends on the kind of drugs we’re talking about, we mean, light drugs, like weed, can be used carefully and , of course, just rarely, but hard drugs, involving pills and needles and stuff like that, should never be even tried.
Just as everything on the Earth alcohol may also be taken carefully, we must be sensible and aware of the dangers of “overdrinking”, and if we follow that “rules” alcohol can even become a way of enjoy the night and have more fun because it make us less shy.
About fashion, all of us have almost the same opinion, we all think that it depends on each person if she/he wants or not follow trends or be fashion, but it is a little too much when people spend lots and lots of money in some pieces of clothing just because of being brand marks when sometimes they’re just equal to no-name branded clothes. But being fashion isn’t neccessary being a clone, we can’t dress something just because it’s a trend or something like that we can’t forget who we are, we can’t overpower our personality with a shirt ou a pair of pants, just as we can’t discriminate and stare at someone just because he/she has it own style we’ve got to accept differences and not mistreat someone just because it’s not just one more clone. By the way, talking about discrimination it leads us to another issue - racism. And to describe it there’s no other words, it is gross, awfull, creepy, and mean. We can’t discriminate people just because of their skin color, or different culture, faith or whatever. We all are humans, we all are thinking beings, we all are living-beings and we have to love, to accept, to respect.

Carla

Catarina

Sara

Eva

OUR STUDENTS' TEXTS ABOUT ADS - 10/11/13/15/18/11A

We have a similar opinion among the members of the group about the use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. All of us think that those substances can be consumed if we don’t use them in big quantities and frequently, so that they do not damage our health by consuming them or getting addicted to them.
In our group there aren’t racist or xenophobic people, because we are tolerant, so we accept the immigrants and we don’t discriminate or distinguish people because of their races, colour, faith or nationality. We all think that everyone deserves the same opportunities and the same treatment in our society.
In Portugal there are many different cultures due to our proximity to the north of Africa, to the open borders in the EU and to the civilizations that occupied our territory.
We accept the idea of the free trade of people and goods among EU countries, but each country should preserve its national identity specially its language, culture and traditions.
In our group there are some different opinions about the use of brand clothes. In general we only buy brands because there is a better relationship between price and quality. We follow the main fashion trends as almost every teenager does, but we don’t spend much money in clothes and shoes just to be fancy and fashionable.
All of us consider that women have a role in the society as important as men and women should not be discriminated. We all agree that women must have the same opportunities because nowadays they perform an important role in the society: women have their own job and, at the same time they are wives, mothers and housewives.

Eduardo Batista -10
Emanuel Pereira - 11
João Ferreira - 13
Pedro Gaspar - 15
Ricardo Ferreira - 18.

OUR STUDENTS' TEXTS ABOUT ADS - 2/7/10/16/11B

→ Racism/Xenophobia – Racism and xenophobia are extremely wrong ideals. Every race has its own characteristics, that we must use to make a better world.

→ Drugs – Drug consume is totally wrong, but if we have the chance of consumption, we just have to say no to drugs, specially nowadays, with all the information we have about the side effects of consuming drugs.

→ Tobacco – There's tons of informations about health problems that tobacco creates, specially breathing problems. Also, in a time when everyone wants to live more and better, I don't get why some people with that concern smoke, since tobacco reduces our life time.

→ Alcohol – A little bit like tobacco, alcohol creates many health problems, that we have information about, but many people still drink alcohol, even knowing that it reduces their life time.

→ Fashion – Fashion is something that people shouldn't follow. Every person has an unique identity, and in a certain way, by following fashion, ends up destroying that unique identity, and ends uup being up being equal to others.

Bruno Franco - 2
Diogo Domingues - 7
Fernando Henriques - 10
João Carvalho - 16

OUR STUDENTS' TEXTS ABOUT ADS - 1/9/11/14/11B

Based on several different opinions in the group, we wrote a short text about each Project theme.

→ Drugs – The majority of the group doesn’t agree with drug consumption, although one of the members of the group, thinks that if it is consumed rarely or in special occasions, it won’t make too much damage.

→ Tobacco – We don’t care whether people smoke or not, we think that each person is responsible for what they do, but sometimes we are influenced by our friends. However personally we wouldn’t smoke.

→ Racism/Xenophobia – We think it’s unfair that some people judge and harm others because of their race, skin color or religion. We are all equal in rights and duties, each one of us is important and shouldn’t be labeled by their characteristics.

→ Fashion – Fashion for us is important because it tells a lot about the peoples’ style. It is easier to get a Job or being with our friends if we dress well and mainly brand clothes. People don’t mind spending a lot of money, just to look good.

→ Violence – We are against any type of violence, we think it’s wrong that people hurt others, and most of the times for no reason.

→ Alcohol – Nowadays there are more teenagers who drink liquor, at least on special days. We think that occasionally, it’s not bad to drink, it helps us to ease our minds.

→ Cultural Diversity – We think cultural diversity can be just a good thing, because we can learn different cultures and languages, although there are some divergences with many kinds of cultures.

→ European Identity – We think that it’s a very controversial subject, because we all consider ourselves as Portuguese people, even if our country has bad things which will never benefit us. But on the other hand when we leave Portugal and go to some other European country, we are welcome most of the times, so it makes us think at the same time we are European people.

Text written by:
11 - Filipe
9 - Emanuel Agostinho
14 - Joana Ribeiro
1 - Ângela

OUR STUDENTS' TEXTS ABOUT ADS - 12/17/20/11B

→ Tobacco:
In our group no one is a smoker.
We all agree that tobacco is something harmful to the health of the smoker.
We are supporters of the prohibition of the consumption of tobacco in closed places independently of the existence of places for smokers and non-smokers.

→ Alcohol:
One of the elements of our group, because of his health, can’t consume alcohol. The rest of the elements consume occasionally.
It’s common to the three elements the opinion that it is not necessary to over-consume liquor, but we don’t judge who doesn’t think like us.

→ Drugs:
No one in our group consumes drugs, however, we wonder what kind of feelings the consumption of drugs arouses in people who take them. We agree that drugs are useless and too expensive.
Drugs should only be used for medical purposes.

→ Racism:
The elements of our group don’t discriminate against anyone, but they fear some of the gypsies and they understand the distance kept from the gypsies.
However, we recognize that they have reasons to act violently, since they are discriminated against by other persons.

→ Violence:
The three elements of the group are against violence, because problems should be resolved in a civilized way. However we think that in some extreme cases, it’s necessary to act offensively to obtain results.

→ Xenophobia:
We don’t oppose to any nationality or culture, we support interculturality.

→ Cultural diversity:
According to what we have said before about xenophobia, we don’t discriminate against anyone with a different culture than ours.

→ European identity:
We always consider first the country and next the fact of belonging to an European community or other communities.
We think that belonging to a community brings benefits to the country and the community.

→ Fashion:
The three elements of our group show some pleasure regarding fashion and everything that is connected to the same. We defend that fashion is becoming more and more important in society. However it has positive and negative aspects. Fashion gives comfort to people, however it is a waste of money and sometimes is used as discrimination against other persons.
We don’t agree with some stereotypes of excessively thin models because it is not a form of beauty, although some persons have a different opinion.
In conclusion our group thinks that fashion is a form of expression defined by everyone.

Text written by:
Guilherme Madeira Ner 12
Juliana Marrazes Ner 17
Rita Moleiro Ner 20
Class: 11th B

MORE COUNTER AD EXAMPLES

COUNTER AD EXAMPLES

CREATING COUNTER ADS

You can “talk back” to deceptive or harmful media messages by creating counter-ads.

These are parodies of advertisements, delivering more truthful or constructive messages using the same persuasion techniques as real ads.

By creating counter-ads, you can apply media literacy skills to communicate positive messages, in a fun and engaging exercise.
The simplest way to create a counter-ad is to alter a real ad (magazine or newspaper ads work best) by changing the text or adding graphic elements; just write or draw over the original ad, or paste new materials onto it. A counter-ad can also be created by drawing a new image, copying the design and layout of a real ad. Collage techniques work well, too. You can also write scripts for radio or TV counter-ads, and read them to the class. Or take it a step further and record or videotape your counter-ad.

Here are a few tips on making effective counter-ads:

Analyze. Look at several real ads and try to figure out why they’re effective. The best counter-ads use the same techniques to deliver a different message.

Power. Your message has to break through the clutter of all the real ads that people see or hear. Think about what makes an ad memorable to you. What techniques does it use to grab your attention? Use them.

Persuade. Use the same persuasion techniques found in real ads – like humor, repetition, or flattery -- to deliver your alternative message.

Pictures. Visual images are incredibly powerful. People often forget what they read or hear, but remember what they see. The best counter-ads, like the best ads, tell their stories through pictures.

Rebellion. Advertising targeted at young people often appeals to a sense of youthful rebellion. Effective counter-ads expose misleading and manipulative advertising methods and turn their rebellious spirit toward the corporate sponsors who use them.

“KISS” – Keep It Short & Simple. Use only one idea for your main message. Focus everything on getting this message across.

Plan. Try to think of everything – words, images, design -- before you begin production. Make a few sketches or rough drafts before you start crafting the final product.

Practice. If you’re going to perform a radio or TV script (and especially if you’re making an audio recording or video) your cast and crew will need to rehearse. Then, rehearse it again.

Teamwork. Working in a team can lighten your workload and spark creativity. Brainstorm ideas as a group. Make sure all members share responsibility for the work.

Revise. When you think you’re finished, show your counter-ad to uninvolved people for feedback. Do they understand it? Do they think it’s funny? Use their responses to revise your work for maximum impact.

Distribute. Your ideas are meant to be seen! Make copies of your counter-ads and post them around your school. Get them published in your school newspaper. Show your videotape to other kids and adults. Your counter-ad can stimulate needed discussion and debate around media and health issues.

Have fun! Making a counter-ad is a fun way to learn about media and health, to be creative, and to express your views.

Enjoy it!