Week 7 — The Ad Tracker
The Attention Economy — Part 3 (Key Activity)
This is the key activity week for Unit 2. Students conduct a focused experiment: tracking every single time someone tries to sell them something during a set period of media consumption. "Selling" doesn't just mean products — it includes selling ideas, feelings, behaviors, and clicks. The results are usually surprising, even to adults.
Key Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Persuasion attempt | Any time someone tries to influence what you think, feel, or do |
| Persuasion technique | A specific method used to influence you — emotional appeals, celebrity endorsements, urgency, repetition |
| Product placement | When a product appears inside other content (like a movie character using a specific brand) as hidden advertising |
"This week you become an ad detective. Your mission: count every time something tries to get your attention or convince you to want something. You might be surprised how many you find!"
Connection
Last week students learned to decode clickbait formulas. This week they broaden their lens and track every form of persuasion they encounter during a focused period of media. This is the Unit 2 key activity — a hands-on experiment that usually surprises students (and adults). Next week extends the idea further: what happens when media sells opinions, feelings, and behaviors instead of products?
From Weeks 5-6: Students now apply attention-economy awareness in real time. Encourage them to use their "Who made this and why?" questions from Week 2 on each ad they find.
Teacher Preparation
Prepare a tracking sheet or help the student create one. Columns should include:
- Time spotted
- What was being "sold" (product, idea, click, feeling)
- Where it appeared (TV, app, game, website, sign, packaging)
- How it tried to get your attention (bright colors, famous person, emotional appeal, clickbait, free offer)
- Did it work? (Did you feel the urge to click, buy, or pay attention?)
Choose which media the student will track during Session 2. Good options:
- 30 minutes of regular TV (with commercials)
- 30 minutes of browsing YouTube (with ads)
- A walk through a store or shopping area
- Flipping through a magazine
- Using a free mobile game
You may want to do the activity alongside the student — adults are often shocked at their own results.
You don't need anything except a timer and a notebook. The student tracks ads during any 30-minute block of media they'd normally use — TV, a game, a magazine, or a walk through a store.
Keep the tone scientific, not preachy. The student is a researcher collecting data. There's no "right" number of ads to find — the point is awareness. Some students will find 5 in an hour; others will find 40+. Both results lead to great conversations.
Guided Session 1
What Counts as "Being Sold Something"?
Learning Goal
Students can define "persuasion attempt" broadly — including ads for products, promotions for ideas, engagement hooks, and emotional manipulation — and are prepared to track them.
Activities
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Expand the Definition — Ask: "When I say 'someone is trying to sell you something,' what do you think of?" The student will probably say commercials or store ads. Validate that — then push further. "What about when a video title says 'You Won't Believe This'? Is that selling you something?" Guide toward a broader definition:
- Selling a product (buy this toy, eat this food)
- Selling a click (clickbait, thumbnails, notifications)
- Selling an idea (you should think this, believe this, vote for this)
- Selling a feeling (feel scared, feel outraged, feel inspired)
- Selling time (keep watching, keep scrolling, play one more level, daily login streaks)
- Selling status (limited-edition skins, battle pass tiers, "only 2 hours left!" event countdowns in games)
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Practice Round — Show the student 5 quick examples and have them identify what's being "sold" in each one. A cereal commercial (product). A clickbait headline (click). A political yard sign (idea). A "you have 3 unread notifications" prompt (time). A charity poster showing a sad puppy (feeling). A game offering "Buy 500 gems for $4.99 — BEST VALUE!" (product + urgency). Discuss how the technique differs for each.
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Build the Tracker — Create the tracking sheet together. Review the columns. Do a practice entry together using one of the examples above.
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Set the Rules — Decide together: what media will they track? How long? (Aim for at least 30 minutes of focused tracking.) The student should try to catch EVERYTHING — even small things like colored price tags in a store or auto-play prompts on a video.
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Media Checkpoint Connection — Remind students that The Media Checkpoint questions apply to every persuasion attempt they find. For the trickiest ones, run through questions 1–4: What am I looking at? Who made it, and why? What choices shaped it? How does it want me to feel?
Reflection Questions
- Before this session, how many persuasion attempts per hour would you have guessed?
- Which type of "selling" do you think you'll see the most of?
- Do you think the people making these things WANT you to notice the selling, or do they hope you DON'T notice?
Guided Session 2
The Ad Tracker Challenge
Learning Goal
Students can systematically track persuasion attempts in real media and organize their observations.
Activities
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Run the Experiment — The student spends 25–30 minutes consuming the chosen media while tracking every persuasion attempt on their sheet. The adult can sit nearby and do the same (tracking the same media or different media). Encourage the student to catch everything, even small moments.
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Tally and Sort — When the timer goes off, count the results. Sort the entries by type:
- How many were selling a product?
- How many were selling a click or more time?
- How many were selling an idea or feeling?
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The Surprise Moment — Share your totals. Most people are shocked by the number. If the student tracked 30 minutes of TV, they likely found 15–30+ persuasion attempts. If they tracked a free game, the number could be even higher. Ask: "Before today, did you notice ANY of these?"
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Compare Notes — If you also tracked, compare your results. Did you notice things the student missed? Did the student catch things you missed? This shows that everyone has blind spots, and that media literacy is a skill that improves with practice.
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Make It Visual — If time allows, create a quick bar chart or tally chart of the results. Seeing the data visually makes the scale more concrete.
Reflection Questions
- What was the final count? Was it more or less than you expected?
- Which type of persuasion was most common?
- Which attempt was the sneakiest — the one that almost got past you?
- Did any of the persuasion attempts actually work on you? (It's okay if they did — the point is noticing.)
Independent Session
Ad Tracker Journal
Instruction
Continue your Ad Tracker experiment on your own. Choose a different type of media from what you used in Session 2. Track for at least 20 minutes.
When you're done tracking, answer these questions in your journal:
- Total count: How many persuasion attempts did you find?
- Most common type: Were they mostly selling products, clicks, ideas, or feelings?
- Sneakiest one: Which attempt was the hardest to spot? Why?
- Your defense plan: Now that you can see these, what will you do differently? Write 2–3 rules for yourself. (Example: "Before I click a headline, I'll ask: is this telling me something or tricking me into clicking?")
If you want a bonus challenge, try tracking the media someone else in your family uses and compare your results.
Skills Reinforced
- Systematic observation and data collection
- Recognizing diverse forms of persuasion
- Moving from awareness to personal strategy
Setup
Provide the same tracking sheet from Session 2 (or a fresh one), a journal or paper for the reflection questions, and access to a different media type. Set a timer for the tracking period, then allow extra time for the written reflection.
Quick Check
After this week's sessions, the student should be able to:
- Count them: Report a total number of persuasion attempts found in a block of media.
- Sort them: Categorize attempts into products, clicks, ideas, and feelings.
- Reflect: Name their personal "blind spot" — what kind of persuasion do they most easily miss?
Caregiver Look-Fors
- The student takes the tracking task seriously and records entries systematically
- The total count surprises them (the shock of volume is a key learning moment)
- They identify persuasion beyond just obvious ads
- They develop a personal strategy ("Before I click, I'll ask...")
- They show interest in comparing their results with someone else's
🎯 Takeaway
Big idea: Persuasion attempts are everywhere — and counting them makes you more aware of how often media is trying to influence you.
Remember: You don't have to avoid all ads. Just notice them so you're choosing consciously.
Younger Learner Adaptation (Ages 6–8)
- Shorten the tracking window: 10–15 minutes instead of 30. Count is less important than the awareness.
- Track together: The adult and student track side by side, pointing things out as they go.
- Use tally marks: Instead of writing descriptions, draw a mark for each persuasion attempt found.
- Focus on TV or magazines: These are easier to track than fast-moving digital content.
Older Learner Extension (Ages 11–13)
- Compare platforms: Track two different media types (e.g., TV vs. a free game vs. a short-form video app) and compare the density and type of persuasion.
- Gaming persuasion audit: Analyze a free-to-play game specifically — track cosmetics prompts, loot-box or gacha mechanics, battle-pass nudges, "limited time" events, and "watch an ad for a reward" offers. How many persuasion attempts happen in a single 20-minute session?
- Calculate attention cost: If the student watched 30 minutes and saw 20 ads at ~15 seconds each, how much of that time was actually ads?
- Research: How much money does a 30-second Super Bowl ad cost? What does that tell us about the value of attention?
Accessibility Options
- Tally chart: Use simple tally marks instead of written descriptions. Discuss findings verbally afterward.
- Audio notes: Use a recording device to verbally note each persuasion attempt as they spot it.
- Collaborative tracking: The student identifies, the adult writes.
- Sorting afterward: Place tokens or counters into labeled cups (product / click / idea / feeling) for each attempt.
- Visual timeline: Draw a timeline of the media session and mark where each persuasion attempt appeared.