Abstract

This study explores the effects that print advertising and television commercials have on teenagers and how education plays a role in this consumer culture. This exploratory study is based on one session with a focus group of six students from a public high school in Laval, Quebec. Three of the students are male and three are female. The study is based on three activities completed during the focus group. The first activity was students responding to a questionnaire regarding their media related spending habits. The second activity was to view and analyze a variety of print advertisements. Lastly, students were asked to complete an analysis of five television commercials. The results point to the fact that advertising does have an effect on teenagers and that education must play a role in helping students become critical thinkers in order to make sense of this phenomenon that is literally all around them. Suggestions on how to achieve this as well as further research are discussed