When ads get personal

Olia | Jan 14, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on targeted advertising are to:

• talk about targeted advertising, AI and marketing ethics;
• share opinions and experiences related to personalised advertising and privacy;
• watch a video on AI advertising helping shelter dogs.

In this lesson, students discuss ads they have seen online and share experiences with targeted advertising. They discuss the potential drawbacks of intrusive data-driven suggestions and share their opinions on data use and advertising ethics. Students read about AI advertising and purposeful marketing concepts, watch a video about an AI adoption campaign and reflect on how targeted advertising and AI boost campaigns. They can also do an extra vocabulary task to review useful collocations for the discussion (e.g. intrusive methods, in a nefarious way, unsettling feeling).

WARM-UP AND DISCUSSION

Before this ESL lesson on targeted advertising starts, students can do an extra vocabulary task. They match sentence halves about intrusive marketing, paying special attention to useful collocations (e.g. anticipate your needs, hit the right note, cross the line). Then, students choose three sentences (e.g. Some of these cross the line, even if they seem helpful at first.) and say what each might be about. Moving on, they do a warm-up activity. Students think of ads they have recently seen online and describe what they were for. They explain why they think they were shown to them. Afterwards, students discuss questions about targeted advertising and personal data. Following that, they rate data-driven suggestions (e.g. Netflix recommending a show you might like) as not intrusive, somewhat intrusive, or very intrusive. Students explain their choices. 

VIDEO AND MORE DISCUSSION

In this part of the ESL lesson on targeted advertising, students examine statements about perspectives on data-driven advertising (e.g. transparency in targeted advertising should be the top priority). They say whether they agree or disagree with them and explain why. Afterwards, students read about AI advertising and purposeful marketing concepts. They brainstorm ways to combine them to help animals in shelters. Moving on, students watch a video about an AI-powered adoption campaign for shelter dogs. They compare their ideas from the previous exercise and discuss ethical questions in modern advertising. Finally, students examine campaigns for various companies and organisations and select one of them. They think about how targeted advertising could be used to make the campaign more effective. Students consider how ethical or acceptable those means would be.

WORKSHEETS

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