Objectives:

To give knowledge on how social media is used for hidden advertising of goods;

To develop perception skills in terms of the content of the social media, and critical thinking regarding brand recommendations;

To introduce the technique of hidden advertising – product placement.

Material:

Smart phones with cameras, internet connection, projector, board, a chosen brand or product with a brand (e.g. a box of tea or similar);

Preparation:

The peer educator could prepare and demonstrate several examples of social media advertising (a couple of cases are available in the appendix after the exercises, but you can find more on the social media accounts of various public figures).
The peer educator could also create a FB group (or a Snapchat chat) for publishing social media adverts.

Process:

The peer educator explains that famous people or those, who have lots of followers on their social media accounts occasionally publish hidden adverts. The author of a social media account takes up to promote a brand or a product based on prior arrangements that his/her followers could only guess of. In these adverts they usually try to show the brand in daily situations, without highlighting the fact that the recommendation to use it is actually an advert, appealing to the experience, the ability to guaranty the

quality, benefit, environmentally-friendly characteristics of the product, etc. These adverts, usually presented in pictures, are popular on Facebook and Instagram. For example, thin and sporty people with a nice figure (e.g. Monika Šalčiūtė) promote a drink with high sugar content thus trying to conceal the possible negative effect.

This technique is called product placement and is used in lots of places, such as movies, popular books, magazines, TV shows and social media. Independent journalists and principled media will not use product placement in their work, because the purpose of this technique is to manipulate the audience.

How do the social media celebrities try to catch their follower’s attention? First of all, it’s important to focus the advert on the owner of the social media account, his/her sensations, feelings, wishes, dreams and experience, shared with the followers, rather than the product advertised. A good photo is presented with a short caption, explaining the photo’s content and hashtags, which make it easier to notice advertising in the social networks.

Nothing helps to understand the technique better than trying to use it, so the peer educator divides the participants into groups of 2-3 people and gives them a task to create a hidden advertising photo for a social network. You can choose to advertise anything around you – a phone, a tea brand, etc. It’s important to use the brand itself in the photo. The photo must be accompanied with a catchy caption and 2-3 hashtags.

When the task is done, upload all photos to your FB group (Snapchat chat) for discussion.

Summary:

As the creative groups introduce their work, the peer educator moderates the discussion by giving the following questions:
-What did you try to emphasize in this photo? Why? -What is your expected effect on your social media followers? Why?

-Would it be possible to avoid manipulating your followers using this type of advertising products? How?