Celebrity Power

Overview
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs is a music mogul and a business leader. Some of his income comes from endorsements for ProActiv and Pepsi. This lesson discusses what happened when two endorsements come into conflict.

Objective
Students will accomplish the following:

• Describe the persuasive techniques used by Pepsi and ProActiv

• Identify who the intended audience is for the advertisements

• Explain why they would buy or not buy the article

• Write about how they would rule on the lawsuit

Standards Addressed
Language Arts — Writing

Communications: Oral and Visual, Listening and Viewing — Benchmark B

Grades 8, 9 and 10

02. Identify and analyze the persuasive techniques (e.g., bandwagon, testimonial, glittering generalities, emotional word repetition and bait and switch) used in presentations and media messages.

03. Determine the credibility of the speaker (e.g., hidden agendas, slanted or biased material) and recognize fallacies of reasoning used in presentations and media messages.

Procedure

1. Have students work in pairs.

2. Distribute the written story about P. Diddy and the assignment sheet.

3. Either discuss or show the Pepsi commercial featuring P. Diddy, which is accessible online using a simple search. The rap star’s Proactiv commercial has raw language, but it and the Pepsi commercial are described in general in the P. Diddy story.

4. Ask the students what they know about P. Diddy, Proactiv and Pepsi.

5. Have them answer the questions in the Product Comparison handout.

6. After about 20 minutes, discuss the following:

   The persuasive technique in the Proactiv ad is endorsement or testimonial.

   For Pepsi, the techniques are endorsement, testimonial, bandwagon and snob appeal.

   How credible P. Diddy is as a spokesman for these products.

   For Proactiv, he can tell how it worked for him, but he cannot speak with authority as to the validity of his claim.

   For Pepsi, he can tell how he liked it that others wanted to buy a Pepsi truck and be “cool” like him, so this works with him as a spokesperson.

   What verdict would the students make if they had to make a judgment on P. Diddy’s case against Proactiv?

Evaluation