Chapter 7 Chapter Inquiry: What role should consumerism ...



Chapter 7 - What role should consumerism play in our society?

Name: _______________ HR: _____

Focus Question: What guides your behaviour as a consumer?

Create a brainstorm of all the different factors you consider when determining what to buy.

1. Identity (pg 243 – 245)

Suppose a close relative (your age) came from out of town for a weekend and your parents asked you to plan some things to do with this person. Develop an itinerary for the weekend.

|Friday night: |Saturday |Sunday: |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

How many of these activities involve spending money? How does your economic consumption compare to an average weekend? What do your activities say about you as a consumer?

List two consumer brand names that you are aware of and state what their slogan and message is:

Brand: ______________________

Slogan: __________________________________________________________________________________

Message: ________________________________________________________________________________

Brand: ______________________

Slogan: __________________________________________________________________________________

Message: ________________________________________________________________________________

How would you describe the way your identity shapes your buying habits?

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Which student perspective from p. 244-245 do you relate to most? Why?

Analyzing Media Messages (pg 246-247)

Read the information regarding critical thinking with respect to media messages. Watch the “Spaghetti Video” and the “House Hippo” videos and discuss them with a partner, using the questions on page 247 to guide you. Take jot notes in the following space.

2. Health and Safety (pg 248 - 249)

In both Canada and the United States certain products require safety labels. Develop your own criteria for what products should be labeled. State whether this is a health or safety concern.

A product should be labeled if:

1. ___________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________

Now, apply your criteria to specific products – see the cigarette example for guidance.

Product Health/Safety Concern Why it should be labeled? What should the label tell the

consumer? How should the label appear?

Cigarettes Health Concern - Smoking can be directly linked to cancer, disease, etc.

- Labels should include: statistics on and images of disease,

as well as information to help people quit, in full colour.

_________ __________________ ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

_________ __________________ ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Canada has banned some products that the United States has not, such as BGH. Some municipalities ban products, while others do not. Examples of this include smoking, use of transfats and plastic water bottles. Who should be responsible for consumer health and safety?

The government The consumer

What role does government play in promoting health and safety of citizens?

What gives you the power to have control over your health and safety as a consumer?

3. Jobs (pg 250 - 251)

Explain how consumer behaviour impacts production of goods and services and how this behaviour impacts jobs, then use an example (use a flow chart) to show the relationship (review the pen example for guidance).

4. Environment (pg 252 - 253)

Develop 3 criteria for evaluating whether or not a product should be on the market (sold to consumers) from an environmental perspective.

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

Research a product that has a consumer concern related to the environment. State the environmental issues related to the product you researched.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Using your criteria, evaluate whether or not this product should be on the market. Explain, using detail.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Marketing (pg 254 - 256)

What is the Competition Act, and what does it do for consumers?

Identify and explain the six marketing techniques listed in the text.

Creative Challenge – Advertising

Collect a good example of each of the marketing techniques from the text; label the advertisement with the technique. Create a subvertisement to add to the collection. A subvertisement is a subversive advertisement, often satirical or parodical in nature, which reveals a truth about the advertised product. Your subvertisement should be an alteration or manipulation of an existing ad or icon. Include the original along with yours to compare. Your Creative Challenge may take any suitable format, including a poster, flip book, iMovie or PowerPoint.

6. Responding to the focus question: What guides your behaviour as a consumer?

Rank the factors (from the text) that impact your behaviour as a consumer from most to least important. Explain your ranking.

1. ____________________________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________________________________________________

4. ____________________________________________________________________________________

5. ____________________________________________________________________________________

Explanation:

Focus Question: What affects the impact of consumerism on the economies of Canada and the U.S.?

How might regional disparities in income impact consumerism? (pg 261)

Define boycott.

Develop criteria for determining if a company is ethical or a product is safe or ethical.

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

• ______________________________________________________________________________________

Research a current consumer boycott. Why is this company/product being boycotted?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Use your criteria to evaluate whether or not you would support this boycott. Defend your position.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Thinking about the inquiry question

A continuum can illustrate how people feel about consumerism. What actions would those that reject consumerism demonstrate? What actions would those that embrace consumerism demonstrate?

Reject consumerism Embrace consumerism

Actions Actions

______________________________ ______________________________

______________________________ ______________________________

______________________________ ______________________________

______________________________ ______________________________

______________________________ ______________________________

Critical Challenge – Consumer Responsibility

In a mixed market economy like Canada’s, consumers have a responsibility to inform producers when products do not meet their needs or standards. Consider a time when you have been disappointed or frustrated by a purchased product or service. Write a correctly formatted, one page business letter to the appropriate representative of the company in question to complain about their product. Clearly and succinctly explain your complaint in your opening. Keep the tone of your letter business-like and avoid sarcasm or aggression, as it does not encourage response. Suggest a solution or resolution to the problem, without asking for freebies. Include details and specifics about the product so that the producer can take the required action. If the situation is serious enough, it would be appropriate to suggest that you may take your business elsewhere (use that dollar vote!). Use their own advertising or claims for their product to show they are not meeting their commitments. Type your letter and create a correctly formatted envelope for it. We will stamp and send all the letters from the school, but put your personal address as the return address, so any response is sent directly to you.

Vocabulary

Consumer

Consumerism

Ethical

Disparity

GDP

Globalization

-----------------------

FACTORS

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download