Consumer Hot Topics
Theme: Consumerism
Grade: 10-12
Introduction
As consumers we are often not aware of the issues that lie behind the production of a product. Some have enjoyed high profiles. An example of this would be the use of animals in testing cosmetic products. However, there are many more issues that consumers should be made aware of for moral (child labour), health (MSG, food colourants), environmental (CFCs, recycling) and ethical (music piracy) reasons , to name but a few.
Task
The National Consumer Forum has given a desktop publishing company run by you and your friends the the opportunity to submit designs for a series of brochures on consumer awareness of controversial consumer related issues. Since this is part of an ongoing education programme you have the opportunity to choose from the following list:
- child labour
- ozone friendly products
- software and/or music piracy
- food additives
- wasting natural resources
- use of animals for testing
- email spam
Process
You should produce four brochures for your submission. You may have more than one brochure on one issue. Your campaign should have a clear, identifiable theme and the brochures should be factually correct in highlighting and addressing the issue. Each brochure should give a clear message to the consumer.
For this assignment, you will work in teams of four and you will divide your task into roles as follows (click on each role for more information):
Conclusion
The best way to learn is to teach. You should have learnt a great deal about a few consumer-related issues by producing this series of brochures. If you are fully supportive of the issues that you have exposed, this will affect the decisions you make when you next consider buying products which may be questionable.
