Date: February 26, 2005
Level: Pre-Intermediate +
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

THE ARTICLE

Animal rights activists have scored the first victory today in their battle to have what they view as an offensive candy removed from the market. The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) strongly objected to a range of candies being manufactured by the food giant Kraft. The name of the offensive candy is Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy. It is shaped like animals that have been run over and squashed by a car, complete with tire marks on its body. In response to a NJPCA press release demanding the withdrawal of the product from the market, Kraft pulled its animated advertisements of Road Kill candy from its website. Kraft has yet to comment on whether it will cease production of the fruit-flavored sweets. The NJSPCA stated the candies were, “completely unacceptable and irresponsible” and were “shocked, horrified and dismayed to see that Kraft is manufacturing and marketing gummi candy to children shaped like snakes, chickens and squirrels with tire tracks over the bodies to look like "road kill.” It urged Kraft to uphold one of its six core values, integrity, by “Doing the right thing. … I see nothing in the new Trolli "Road Kill" product line that advances your vision of values. In fact, this product is completely inconsistent with Kraft's values and clearly sends the wrong message to your target audience ... children. There is nothing funny, intentional or accidental, about an animal getting run over by a car.”

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about candies / animal rights / candy company responsibility / road kill / candy shapes / …

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. CANDY BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘candy’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. MY CANDY HISTORY: Write down very brief notes of the history of you and candy. Did you eat a lot as a kid? Do you still eat a lot? What were / are your faves?

4. OPINIONS: What do you think of the following opinions about this article?

1. Bravo NJSPCA. What Kraft is doing is horrible and tasteless.
2. The NJSPCA should spend more time and money on protecting real animals.
3. Kids are kids. They love this kind of candy. It’s fun.
4. Road Kill candy is another example of how American values are sliding.
5. No child is going to eat Road Kill candy and then drive a car hunting for animals to run over.
6. If these fun candies are withdrawn from the market, it means the thousands of similarly ‘offensive’ children’s toys must also go.
7. My favourite is squashed squirrel.
8. What a fantastic company Kraft is. They took their Road Kill off their website immediately.
9. Stop taking the fun out of life NJSPCA.
10. The NJSPCA is making a mountain out of a molehill – no flattened moles (ha ha).

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘road’ and ‘kill’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. Animal rights activists are playing a game.  T / F
2. Animal rights activists want an offensive candy removed from the market.  T / F
3. The candy is shaped like animals that have been run over and squashed by a car.  T / F
4. The candy is complete with tire marks on the animal’s body.  T / F
5. The candy company immediately stopped advertising the candy on its website.  T / F
6. The candy company will cease production of the fruit-flavored sweets next week.  T / F
7. The candy company has six core values.  T / F
8. There is nothing funny about an animal getting run over by a car.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	activists	flattened
(b)	victory	keep
(c)	offensive	answer
(d)	squashed	horrified
(e)	response	goodness
(f)	cease	campaigners
(g)	dismayed	pressed
(h)	urged	win
(i)	uphold	vulgar
(j)	integrity	wind up

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	Animal rights	the market
(b)	scored the first	release
(c)	removed from	sweets
(d)	run over and	irresponsible
(e)	press	victory
(f)	fruit-flavored	activists
(g)	completely unacceptable and	line
(h)	uphold one of its six core	squashed by a car
(i)	product	inconsistent with Kraft's values
(j)	this product is completely	values

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Animal rights Road Kill candy victory

Animal rights activists have __________ the first victory today in their battle to have what they view as an offensive candy removed from the market. The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) strongly __________ to a range of candies being manufactured by the food giant Kraft. The name of the offensive candy is Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy. It is shaped like animals that have been run over and __________ by a car, complete with tire marks on its body. In response to a NJPCA press release demanding the withdrawal of the product from the market, Kraft __________ its animated advertisements of Road Kill candy from its website. Kraft has yet to comment on whether it will __________ production of the fruit-flavored sweets. The NJSPCA stated the candies were, “completely unacceptable and irresponsible” and were “shocked, horrified and dismayed to see that Kraft is manufacturing and marketing gummi candy to children shaped like snakes, chickens and squirrels with tire tracks over the bodies to look like "road kill.” It __________ Kraft to uphold one of its six core values, integrity, by “Doing the right thing. … I see nothing in the new Trolli "Road Kill" product line that advances your vision of values. In fact, this product is completely __________ with Kraft's values and clearly sends the wrong __________ to your target audience ... children. There is nothing funny, intentional or accidental, about an animal getting run over by a car.”

squashed inconsistent cease objected urged message pulled scored

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘ROAD’/ ‘KILL’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:

1. What do you think of this article?
2. Do you like candies?
3. Would you like to try Road Kill candy?
4. Does animal-shaped candy have rights?
5. Would you buy Road Kill candy for children?
6. Is it OK to kill animals for fur coats?
7. Shouldn’t the NJSPCA spend more time and money on protecting real animals?
8. Is the Road Kill product bad for kids?
9. Should Kraft withdraw its candy from the market?
10. Won’t these candies encourage kids to do bad things to animals?
11. What would you think if a product called “Road Kill Pets” was introduced?
12. How about “Road Kill Babies”?
13. Is there a line of good taste that companies must not cross with acceptable children’s products?
14. Are there any other candies or toys that are bad for children’s minds?
15. What does Road Kill candy say about children’s minds?
16. Is this a mountain out of a molehill?
17. What is your favorite candy?
18. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Road Kill candy. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. NEW PRODUCT: Create a poster for a ‘responsible’ new candy for kids.

4. LETTER TO KRAFT: Write a letter to Kraft about Road Kill candy.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. Animal rights activists are playing a game.  F
2. Animal rights activists want an offensive candy removed from the market.  T
3. The candy is shaped like animals that have been run over and squashed by a car.  T
4. The candy is complete with tire marks on the animal’s body.  T
5. The candy company immediately stopped advertising the candy on its website.  T
6. The candy company will cease production of the fruit-flavored sweets next week.  F
7. The candy company has six core values.  T
8. There is nothing funny about an animal getting run over by a car.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	activists	campaigners
(b)	victory	win
(c)	offensive	vulgar
(d)	squashed	flattened
(e)	response	answer
(f)	cease	wind up
(g)	dismayed	horrified
(h)	urged	pressed
(i)	uphold	keep
(j)	integrity	goodness

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	Animal rights	activists
(b)	scored the first	victory
(c)	removed from	the market
(d)	run over and	squashed by a car
(e)	press	release
(f)	fruit-flavored	sweets
(g)	completely unacceptable and	irresponsible
(h)	uphold one of its six core	values
(i)	product	line
(j)	this product is completely	inconsistent with Kraft's values

 

GAP FILL:

Animal rights Road Kill candy victory

Animal rights activists have scored the first victory today in their battle to have what they view as an offensive candy removed from the market. The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) strongly objected to a range of candies being manufactured by the food giant Kraft. The name of the offensive candy is Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy. It is shaped like animals that have been run over and squashed by a car, complete with tire marks on its body. In response to a NJPCA press release demanding the withdrawal of the product from the market, Kraft pulled its animated advertisements of Road Kill candy from its website. Kraft has yet to comment on whether it will cease production of the fruit-flavored sweets. The NJSPCA stated the candies were, “completely unacceptable and irresponsible” and were “shocked, horrified and dismayed to see that Kraft is manufacturing and marketing gummi candy to children shaped like snakes, chickens and squirrels with tire tracks over the bodies to look like "road kill.” It urged Kraft to uphold one of its six core values, integrity, by “Doing the right thing. … I see nothing in the new Trolli "Road Kill" product line that advances your vision of values. In fact, this product is completely inconsistent with Kraft's values and clearly sends the wrong message to your target audience ... children. There is nothing funny, intentional or accidental, about an animal getting run over by a car.”