The first day

On the first day, we teachers separated the pupils into the different agencies. We did this in such a way that there were pupils from both 7th, 8th and 9th grade in each agency. The 7th graders had never been taught about commercials before, but would be able to learn from the others, who had.

We made a big deal of giving each agency a specific profile and identity. Some examples:

Pluto: The small hippie bureau, who are specifically for customers who are interested in sustainable growth and green values.

Fedthasen & Søn: A company that believes in the slogan "Sex sells!" They will pander to the consumer's least admirable sides.

Satchel & Satchel: A streamlined megacorp that only serves the biggest and richest customers.

And so on... All in all, there were 9 agencies, each with 5-6 pupils.

The pupils were asked to distribute the following jobtypes between them: Boss, Art Director, Copywriter, and Accountant. We told them that they would all be working on the assignments, but that they would each have to be in charge at different points in the process.

Fortunately for us, it had turned up that the father of one of the pupils at our school was an art director. After the different agencies had been presented to the pupils, the art director made a presentation about commercials and what it's like working at a real advertising agency. The pupils were asked to take notes, and were told that these notes would be important for them in order to be able to play their parts in the role-play.

During the first day, the pupils were introduced to elementary expressions related to advertizing. They were also introduced to things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the different categories of tv-commercials (aesthetical, humoristic, etc.), and many other things.

At the end of day one, the pupils were handed a character sheet, which they had to fill out at home. We encouraged them to wear clothes that would fit well with what their character would wear.