AA Media Smart outreach

This week, Media Smart, the advertising industry’s award-winning education programme, which is supported by the Advertising Association, wrote to DCMS Select Committee Chair, Julian Knight MP and Women & Equalities Committee Chair, Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP about the work it has been doing. Media Smart creates free, PSHE Association accredited media and digital literacy educational resource for schools and youth organisations as well as teachers, parents and carers. These materials enable young people to confidently navigate the media they consume and to identify, interpret and critically evaluate all forms of advertising. This showreel provides an overview of Media Smart’s impact and industry supporters.

The letters, from Media Smart’s Director Rachel Barber-Mack, follow the recent inquiry by the DCMS Committee into influencer culture and the inquiry by the Women & Equalities Committee into Body Image. Rachel highlights Media Smart’s latest resource on social media influencers that was launched earlier this year. Informed by recent research conducted with young people, it was created due to strong interest in learning more about influencers and digital marketing. The module helps young people to understand the commercial link between influencers and the brands they may be promoting, how to recognise branded and paid for content, and how to differentiate between organic and sponsored content.

The training is delivered through a series of informal and informative films made by real influencers. It features popular youth influencers, such as Nayna Florence and Hannah Witton, who feature in short films to discuss what influencer marketing is, why brands use it and the relevant regulations

To date, the educational resource has been downloaded 1,720 times, which continues to increase month-on-month, and is estimated to have reached between 100,000-200,000 students. Moreover, since the launch, Facebook ads promoting the teaching materials have reached nearly a quarter of a million people, generated nearly 10,000 webpage views. In September 2021, Media Smart will be adding further resources in this area with educational materials on TikTok co-created with young people themselves.

Media Smart has done a lot of work to support young people with body positivity over the years and the letter to Ms Nokes focused on Media Smart’s resource on body image and mental well-being- the Boys’ Biggest Conversation Campaign, a teaching resource focussed on the representation of men in the media. The module helps young people to understand how this issue can affect body confidence and delivers this training through a series of interviews with secondary school boys, inviting them to share how they feel about their appearance, and exploring why they feel that way.

The campaign, produced in partnership with the NSPCC and Childline, was co-developed with First News and kick-started an ongoing partnership with the title which is read by over 2 million young people and subscribed to by over half of UK schools. The short film features TV doctor and youth specialist Dr Ranj.

You can download a copy of the letter to the DCMS Committee Chair here.

To find out how your organisation can support Media Smart with this work please contact Rachel Barber-Mack, Director of Media Smart.