Retelling Very Funny Ads
I love using adverts in my teaching. If you ignore the fact that they’re trying to flog you something and focus on their narrative structure, they can provide you with an endless supply of mini-stories for “retelling” activities. The best ads are those with unexpected or amusing twists at the end. Here’s a beautifully simple example to get you in the mood.
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Step One : Select your ads
Go to www.veryfunnyads.com and select about 8 adverts you think are suitable for retelling.
veryfunnyads
To save you a bit of time here are a few that have worked well for me:
- Drama Queen http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=26931
- Bait http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=24958
- Crying Baby http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=24938
- Airport Holiday http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=24951
- Lottery-winner in Church http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=26809
- First Steps http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=26003
- Snow http://www.veryfunnyads.com/?oid=24962
Step Two : The Retelling Activity
- Once in class, put your students in pairs (Student A | Student B).
- Ask Student B to cover their eyes or look out of the window while you show Student A the first advert.
- Ask Student B to explain to their partner what they think happens in the advert based on what they have heard (possible language focus: it sounded like … / it sounded as if ...)
- Now, get Student A to explain to B what actually happens. You might like to feed in some vocabulary before they do this.
- Show the advert again so that Student B can compare the images with their partner’s description.
- Go through the same procedure, with Student B doing the retelling.
Step Three : Conversation
Once your students have seen all the adverts, get them talking about advertising in a more general sense by going through the following questions in pairs or small groups (you may, of course, prefer to do this activity before Step Two)
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tefltecher 
T Bestwick
July 11, 2011
Sounds great, Ian. I love the fact that Student B has to guess what happens in the advert from what they hear – I’ve often seen this type of activity done without the sound on, but your way means that Student B is also involved in retelling the story.
ij64
July 13, 2011
Thanks for the positive feedback, Teresa! I much appreciate it! :-)
teacherdai
July 12, 2011
Thanks for sharing. It is a good way to change a little the classroom environment. =) Cheers
ij64
July 13, 2011
… and thank you for dropping by! :-)
herreraveronica
July 13, 2011
Very nice! I’ve already tried it with my students and it worked fantastically. Thanks for sharing!
ij64
July 13, 2011
Glad it worked so well, Veronica! Thanks for dropping by and for the RTs! :-)
Lucimar Vieira
July 24, 2011
Here in Brazil is time for school holiday, but when classes return I will try it with my pupils,hope them enjoy a lot!l
ij64
March 16, 2012
Thanks Lucimar! Let me know how it goes! :-)
minie16
September 11, 2011
Still on holiday here , can’s wait to try it out. I just know it’s gonna be a winner!
Thanks.
ij64
March 16, 2012
Hoping it’s a winner too! :-)
Oli
March 13, 2012
What a great idea…!
ij64
March 16, 2012
Thanks, Oli! :-)
ocksblog
June 1, 2012
I really liked this activity and the videos you chose! I’ve used it a few times and it always goes down well and gets the students stretching themselves.
However: it might be worth noting some of the links to the suggested ads you posted are now dead (including the Snow one – the best I think. But you can still find this on youtube), so anyone using this would need to check them first and maybe find their own ads to use.
I like this one:
ij64
June 11, 2012
Thanks, Will! Everytime I do this activity with students I check that my fave ads are still available. There seems to be quite a lot of movement of the site so your reminder is well worth reminding people of! … Love the ad you suggest … will definitely be using it next time round! :-)
Lino
August 16, 2013
Normally I don’t learn post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice article.
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September 18, 2013
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