In this post, we feature author Erica Fyvie, whose titles include Trash Revolution: Breaking the Waste Cycle, winner of the Green Earth Book Award. You can hear her speak about her new informational book, Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads, and try her “invitation to imagine” activity. You’ll also find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads
- Written by Erica Fyvie, illustrated by Ian Turner
- Published by Kids Can Press
- Release date: May 4, 2021
For children growing up in an advertising-saturated world, here’s an eye-opening explanation of what advertising is, how it works, and why that matters. The book covers the components of an advertising campaign, from slogans to logos, and the many ways marketers seek to influence behavior, from tapping into fears to using psychological pricing. It then brings these techniques and tools to life by taking readers through the creation of two fictional advertising plans. Along the way, there’s information about the strategies that advertisers use to influence their audience, as well as valuable background on how digital technology allows companies to track people and what that means for privacy. It’s a savvy look at the business of advertising that teaches children to pay better attention to ads and be more discerning about the messages they find. By building media literacy and promoting critical thinking about all kinds of marketing tools, the book empowers readers to analyze and respond to what they see every day.
From Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads, by Erica Fyvie and illustrated by Ian Turner
The messages of advertising hit you all the time, from all angles and at every stage of your life.
Read a longer excerpt from Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads, by Erica Fyvie and illustrated by Ian Turner
Explore Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads
Listen to Erica Fyvie talking with TeachingBooks about creating Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.
- Listen to author Erica Fyvie talk about her name.
- Explore TeachingBooks’ collection of activities and resources for Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads.
Invitation to Imagine
TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Erica Fyvie.
Imagination Activity with Erica Fyvie
I think it’s a great activity to write down the seemingly small details of your life (also a great drawing exercise, if you’d rather). Make note of what’s in your fridge, on your desk, in your closet, on your bookshelf, in your bathroom cabinet—all the things we think we’ll remember later, but likely won’t. Even if you don’t use these details in your writing, it’s a practice of gratitude to look around and take stock of your life. And if you do use them at some future point, the details are what make a lot of passages feel relatable. I wish I had all the details of what my childhood classrooms looked like! I feel like it would help spark dormant memories.
Finish This Sentence . . . with Erica Fyvie
As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy Erica Fyvie’s response.
“While working on this latest project, I was surprised to learn that…”
While working on this latest project, I was surprised to learn that “Hot Cross Buns” is considered a jingle! Bakers in London, England yelled it out of their shop windows in the 1700s to entice customers to buy the buns at Easter time.
Thank you!
To wrap up this Virtual Book Tour, we thank Erica Fyvie for signing a book for all of us.
More Connections to Erica Fyvie and Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads
- Discover books like Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads on TeachingBooks.
- Kids Can’s page about Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads, written by Erica Fyvie and illustrated Ian Turner.
- Buy Mad for Ads: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads, written by Erica Fyvie and illustrated by Ian Turner.
Explore all of the titles featured in the TeachingBooks Virtual Book Tour: one link with author interviews, lesson plans, activities, and more!
All text and images are courtesy of Erica Fyvie, Ian Turner, and Kids Can Press, and may not be used without expressed written consent.
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