Media Literacy Week 2013 - Manitoba Launch

Want to impress Manitoba's education minister? Deliver a knockout presentation.

That's exactly what eight Grades 6-9 students from George Waters Middle School and Henry G. Izatt Middle School did this morning as they launched into insightful presentations about how youth are marketed to and how they feel about it.

James Allum, Manitoba's Minister of Education and Advanced Learning Media, praised the students for their intelligence, thoughtfulness, wit and creativity - all of which were abundantly displayed on stage at the Winnipeg Free Press News Café.

George Waters students Amalie Herath and Meghan Fast kicked off the event with a smart, colourful slide deck showing how pop culture queens lend their images to ads that promise to rid teens compexions of acne.

They proceeded to dissect everything from women's fashion ads to a truly tasteless Axe "Chocolate" video. The duo intelligently tag-teamed the audience with their many insights and opinions on how marketers target youth.

Next up were six students from H. G. Izatt - Loizza Aquino, Danica Grierson, Davis Koga, Matt Murphy, Alan Nguyen and Ryan Wahl. They took turns sharing video and slides that would have made any media arts teacher proud. The video, which they produced in just a day, had slick production values of its own and was loaded with examples of big, loud, dumb marketing campaigns directed at youth. Analysis? Yes, and plenty of it.

During the Q & A that followed, Minister Allum engaged the students with questions of his own. The students, now onstage together, took turns fielding questions from the audience. And there was nothing that left them stumped.

Paul Olson, President of The Manitoba Teachers' Society brought the powerful message that, rather than products, students themselves are the ones being sold to advertisers. Andy McKiel, Past President of ManACE, was emcee.