Multimedia Monday: Viral Marketing and Mummers

This edition of Multimedia Monday is brought to you by the first installment of my advanced students' new textbook: "Viral Marketing."  Great opportunity to bring in some real life examples.

(For other videos, you can find all of the Multimedia Monday posts at this link. As always, I recommend using YouTube Downloader HD to save these and other videos if your classroom doesn't have Internet.)

After some beginning of class chit-chat ("How was your New Year? What did you do?"),  I played this clip for my kids.  Before I hit play, I asked them to think about what the ad was trying to sell.

They were pretty much horrified; at thirty-five seconds in they started really losing their shit.  If you're going to do this, please find a discreet way to take pictures of your students' faces because seriously, the reactions are priceless.  After it finished, I asked them a quick follow-up question.

"What is this commercial for?"

"iPad?"

"Mm, not quite.  Here's one more."

"Teacher, why he smile?"

"He really likes his blender."

I asked them again what the commercial was selling, and one of the more vocal students sussed on it right away this time.  "Ah! Mixer."

"Do you like these commercials?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

I put some of their answers on the board, because in the book they have a mind map on the topic (eg, viral marketing) to fill out and they always like to do that part together.  I got responses like "funny," "unique," and "surprising."  We also talked about whether or not they're popular commercials, why they're popular, where we would see them, if they would show a video like this to their friends, and so forth.

I'm sure you could expand on it from here (have students write [and film?] their own "Will It Blend?" or other ad, eliciting Korean examples of viral marketing), but after this I just worked through the requisite pages in their textbook.  We also watched some more "Will It Blend?" videos.  All of these got really popular responses:

The iPad was the most popular one, but this was a pretty close second.

Also very well-received, plus it has brand recognition (SPAM) and gross-out factor.  This, the glow sticks, and the two I mentioned earlier were the most popular ones.  (I actually let them watch the iPad one again during a break.)

This is pretty talk-y in the middle, as he reads excerpts from Justin Bieber's autobiography.  Lower-level students might tune out, but intermediate and advanced students shouldn't have a problem.  The presenter has good enunciation and let's face it, it's Justin Bieber's autobiography.  We're not talking about Ulysses, here.  You'll want a camera for their reactions at 1:36 or thereabouts.

This one is also pretty talk-y, so lower-level students might disengage while the salesman is yammering on about the Fiesta.  But they thought the green-screened projections and final shot were pretty funny.

BONUS CULTURE POINTS FOLLOW-UP

(maybe not relevant if you're not from [near] Philadelphia)

Of course, not all of my students are in the advanced class with the textbook.  Since today was kind of a lost day (I can't really review anything on the first day of a new movie),  I also had a  Mummers Parade lesson.

I drew a grid on the board.  On the left hand side I put: "EAT," "DO," and "WEAR" each in their own row.  On the top I put "U.S." and "SOUTH KOREA" in their own column.

If there had been more time for me to prep, I would have made up one of those "mix and mingle" worksheets, where each group has a select few pieces of information in a grid and they have to talk to everyone to fill out the whole thing.    Instead, we just talked it out: what does each country eat, do, and wear for New Year's?  (You'll probably also want pictures of funny hats, the ball in Times Square, noisemakers, and so forth.)  (I'll probably do all of these things tomorrow, assuming I have time to prep some things before I leave for work.)

This was a good opportunity to introduce myself, actually, since in my first two classes today I had a few completely new students who only knew my name.  I had them guess where I was from, and then explained that this is a New Year's tradition in my home (or "home") town:  people dress up in fancy costumes, play music, dance, and have a big parade in the city. (I skirted the fact that many of them are probably still wasted from New Year's Eve.)  I found this clip after a bit of digging (many of the other ones online are people's home videos so the quality isn't so great; this is an excerpt from the news coverage so there's very little ambient noise and the announcers are thankfully silent throughout).

I asked them basic "what" questions throughout to keep them from zoning out (while this was popular in some classes, it wasn't as popular as "Will It Blend?"): "What is his job?" and "What is that?" and "What animal is that?" and so forth.  I taught every single class today the words "mermaid" and "merman," productive!  I don't think I'll be teaching them to strut, but maybe we'll sing "Golden Slippers." ;)

The Mummers Parade is one of those things I don't realize I miss until it rolls around and I realize I can't just veg out in front of the TV on January first to watch it.  Of course, when I'm home, I don't park myself on the couch for the whole thing, but it's nice to be able to drift in and out of it.  So I do the next best thing I can: find clips from last year's parade online.

Happy New Year! 
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