Teach Argument with Super Bowl 2020 Commercials!

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Super Bowl commercials are wildly popular for their ability to engage audiences — and they leave us with no shortage of rhetorical strategies to analyze with our students.  This awesome lesson bundle prompts students to closely read, analyze, and synthesize some of the most rhetorically interesting commercials from Super Bowl 2020, with a primary focus on Budweiser’s “Typical American” campaign, but also including Budweiser’s “Whassup” campaign, as well as Google and Microsoft’s respective campaigns.  Scroll down for details about exactly what’s included in this bundle.

This lesson is available exclusively to members of the TeachArgument Community.  Register now to gain instant access to this, as well as ALL of our pop culture lessons, argument resources, video analyses, and more!

Lesson Description

Wondering exactly what you can expect from this lesson bundle?  Look no further!  This bundle contains:

  • A guided rhetorical analysis of Budweiser’s “Typical American” commercial.  These handouts include an excerpted transcript of the commercial, guiding questions for every line, and paired still-frames that prompt students to consider the juxtaposition of visual imagery with the language being used by the speaker.
  • A handout with guided questions that encourage students to think critically about speaker, message, audience, and purpose.  (What’s motivating Budweiser to make these compelling ads, after all…?)
  • A comparative analysis and synthesis task that prompts students to analyze and compose a paper about Budweiser’s “Whassup” commercials.  (*Note – One of the commercials in this series makes a joke about an individual hanging himself as a result of his failed stock market portfolio.  The commercial strives for humor in this clip, but this ad may be inappropriate for younger audiences, or for audiences who are sensitive to this kind of reference.)
  •  A comparative analysis of Google and Microsoft — two trillion dollar companies whose motives may be slightly different than that of smaller corporations.

This lesson bundle promises to engage and delight your students as they think critically about commercials they’re familiar with.  In other words — this is really good stuff.

This lesson is available exclusively to members of the TeachArgument Community.  Register now to gain instant access to this, as well as ALL of our pop culture lessons, argument resources, video analyses, and more!

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Lesson Features

Grades 9-12+ (teacher is encouraged to screen the videos and gauge appropriateness for any given class)
Focus Rhetorical Analysis, Close Reading, Visual Analysis, Intertextual Analysis, Synthesis
Warnings A commercial references suicide (striving for humor). Primary brand whose commercials are being analyzed is Budweiser.

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