Teach Persuasion Using Pop Culture: Deconstructing Song Lyrics and Soda Ads

Hook: Turn students’ scroll time into classroom gold

If you teach rhetoric, creative writing, or media literacy, you’ve likely watched students glaze over at classic speeches but light up when a new song drops or a viral soda ad appears in their feeds. The challenge: turning that excitement into disciplined analysis and ethical judgment. This lesson plan does exactly that — it pairs contemporary song lyrics and real advertising copy so students learn persuasive techniques, practice critical thinking, and write their own ethical messages. It’s practical, classroom-ready, and built for the media environment of 2026.

“The world is changing. Us as individuals are changing. Me as a dad, husband, and bandleader, and as a citizen of Texas and the world have all changed so much since writing the songs on my last record in 2020 and 2021. I think you can hear it. Some of it’s subtle, and some of it is pretty in-your-face.” — Memphis Kee

Why teach persuasion with pop culture in 2026?

Pop culture is the most accessible archive of persuasion for students: music, short-form video, and product campaigns are where rhetorical strategies live and evolve. As of late 2025 and early 2026, three trends make this approach especially timely:

• Wellness marketing has matured: Big consumer brands pivoted into the “healthy soda” space in 2025 — including major launches and acquisitions — which means ads now blend scientific-sounding claims with lifestyle imagery. That mix is ripe for rhetorical analysis and ethical critique.
• Short-form media dominates instructionally relevant texts: TikTok-style ads and music-driven campaigns compress ethos, pathos, and logos into 15–60 seconds. Students need tools to decode fast, multimodal persuasion.
• AI and regulatory change shape persuasion: In 2026, AI-assisted copy and music generation and increased regulatory scrutiny of health claims push educators to teach both technique and ethical evaluation.

Learning objectives (end-of-unit)

• Students will identify rhetorical devices in song lyrics and advertising copy (ethos, pathos, logos, kairos).
• Students will deconstruct multimodal persuasion — how music, tempo, color, and tagline work together.
• Students will evaluate ethical claims in marketing, especially health-related messaging.
• Students will compose an original persuasive piece (ad or lyric) and a short ethical justification.

Materials and prep

• Short clips of soda ads (15–30 seconds) and excerpted song verses (use fair use limits for classroom or obtain permission). Avoid distributing full copyrighted lyrics electronically.
• Annotation tool (shared doc, Hypothesis, or in-class printed worksheet).
• Speaker and display to play audio and show visuals.
• Rubric and peer-review forms (templates below).
• Optional: access to ad archives, social listening tools, and AI audio demo tools for advanced classes.

One-lesson plan (50–60 minutes): Rapid deconstruction + micro-creation

Minute-by-minute guide

1. Warm-up (5 min): Show a 15-second soda ad. Ask: What emotion did you feel? Which words or images stood out?
2. Direct instruction (8 min): Mini-lecture on ethos, pathos, logos, kairos and two musical devices (tempo and repetition) with quick audio examples.
3. Guided analysis (12 min): Break students into pairs. Give each pair a short lyric excerpt and a short ad copy snippet. Task: annotate for rhetorical devices using a provided checklist.
4. Share and synthesize (10 min): Pairs post three observations. Instructor maps patterns on board: which devices overlap in both texts, which are unique to music vs. ads.
5. Micro-creation (10 min): Each pair writes a 2–3 line ad tagline inspired by the lyric’s emotional tone or rewrites a lyric line to serve a product message — focusing on ethical boundaries (no false health claims).
6. Exit ticket (5 min): Each student answers: Which persuasive move was most effective and why? One sentence ethical critique.

Multi-day unit (3–5 lessons): Deep deconstruction to ethical production

Use this structure for a deeper dive that culminates in a summative project.

1. Day 1 — Foundations: Teach rhetorical concepts and annotate short texts. Introduce media literacy questions.
2. Day 2 — Comparative analysis: Students compare a contemporary song verse and a current ad campaign (health or lifestyle). Focus on multimodal features.
3. Day 3 — Case studies: Analyze brand moves from 2025–2026 (e.g., prebiotic soda launches and how brands used scientific language). Cover legal/ethical context (lawsuits over gut-health claims). Discuss bias and cognitive shortcuts.
4. Day 4 — Production workshop: Students draft an original paired piece (song lyric + ad copy or short video script). Include an ethical statement describing truthfulness and target audience protections.
5. Day 5 — Presentation & peer review: Groups present, peers evaluate with rubric, teacher gives final assessment.

Key teaching moves: What to highlight when deconstructing

• Framing and kairos: Why is this message appearing now? (e.g., seasonal wellness pushes, product launches tied to acquisitions)
• Source credibility (ethos): Who is speaking? An artist? A brand ambassador? What cues establish trust?
• Emotional appeal (pathos): Identify emotional anchors — nostalgia, fear, belonging — both in melody and visuals.
• Evidence & logic (logos): Distinguish between persuasive-sounding science (buzzwords like “prebiotic”) and actual evidence. Teach students to ask for data sources.
• Stylistic devices: Repetition, rhyme, metaphor, tempo shifts, sonic hooks, and visual motifs.
• Audience and positioning: Who is the intended audience? How does language, imagery, and rhythm align to reach them?

Activity templates and worksheets

Annotation checklist (quick)

• Identify 3 persuasive devices (label: ethos/pathos/logos/kairos).
• Note 2 multimodal cues (music, tempo, color, camera angles).
• Find 1 explicit claim (e.g., health benefits) and classify as verifiable or unverified.
• Write a single-line ethical evaluation (Is this claim fair? Misleading?).

Peer-review rubric (for presentations)

• Identification of rhetorical devices — 10 pts
• Evidence for analysis (quotes/time-stamps) — 10 pts
• Creativity of production — 10 pts
• Ethical reflection — 10 pts
• Clarity and delivery — 10 pts

Ethics and media literacy — classroom conversation starters

Persuasion is not neutral. Use these prompts to move discussion beyond analysis into civic thinking:

• What responsibilities do advertisers have when making health claims? (Tie to recent 2025–2026 cases where brands faced legal scrutiny.)
• How do artists balance authenticity with commercial partnerships? When does collaboration tip into coercive persuasion?
• When is a persuasive message manipulative — and what are fair alternatives for honest persuasion?
• How might AI-generated music or voice clones affect listener trust? What disclosure should be required?

Practical classroom examples (2026 case study)

Example scaffolding: Pair the ad language of a 2025–2026 “prebiotic soda” launch with a contemporary song that uses health or wellbeing as a trope. Have students:

1. Extract the ad’s explicit claims (e.g., “supports gut health,” “low sugar”) — ask: where is the evidence? Are qualifiers present?
2. Annotate the song for tonal cues that imply wellbeing (tempo, breathy vocals, lyrics that reference feeling good) — ask: is the emotional promise verifiable?
3. Compare strategies: The ad uses logos-sounding terms; the song uses pathos. How do they reinforce or contradict each other?
4. Write a consumer advisory paragraph advising what questions to ask before accepting the claim.

Teachers should use the 2025 Poppi/Pepsi trajectory as a real-world anchor: when major beverage companies acquired wellness-focused brands and launched prebiotic products, marketing blended clinical-sounding terms with lifestyle imagery. That blend is a teachable moment about how language can imply science without substantiating it.

Differentiation & remote-friendly adaptations

• Middle school: Focus on identifying emotions and simple devices (repetition, rhyme); limit production to static posters or single-stanza lyric rewrites.
• High school: Deepen analysis with source accountability, brief research on scientific claims, and multi-clip comparative essays.
• College/adult learners: Assign a policy brief about disclosure requirements for influencer partnerships and AI-generated content.
• Remote class: Use shared annotation tools (Hypothesis), asynchronous discussion boards, and short video submissions via learning management systems.

Assessment strategies and standards alignment

Align this unit with Common Core ELA (grades 9–12) analytical writing standards, AP Language rhetorical analysis skills, and media literacy competencies. Use performance tasks that require:

• A written rhetorical analysis (500–800 words) citing examples.
• A creative production (15–60 second ad or lyric stanza) with an ethical justification paragraph.
• An oral defense or peer-review session to assess argumentation and listening skills.

Advanced strategies for experienced classes

For classes ready to push further, try these advanced modules:

• Algorithmic persuasion lab: Have students analyze how platforms amplify certain ad-song pairings. Track engagement metrics for different clips and hypothesize why some pairings perform better.
• Regulation & policy debate: Assign roles (marketer, regulator, consumer advocate) and debate disclosure requirements for AI-generated voices and health claims.
• Counter-messaging workshop: Students design public-interest campaigns that use persuasive craft to correct misinformation or to warn consumers about misleading wellness ads.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Avoid overquoting copyrighted lyrics in distributed handouts — use short excerpts under fair use and direct students to listen rather than provide full text electronically.
• Don’t equate emotional resonance with truth. Teach students to separate affective response from factual support.
• When using AI demos, foreground ethical constraints and obtain parental/administrative permission for minors.

Why this works: Pedagogy that connects to student identity

This approach leverages three evidence-based pedagogical practices: culturally responsive materials (students’ media preferences), authentic assessment (creating real-world persuasive artifacts), and metacognition (reflecting on how persuasion shapes belief). By pairing song lyrics and ad copy, students practice lateral thinking — recognizing the same rhetorical patterns across genres — and develop skills they’ll need as consumers, creators, and citizens in 2026.

Actionable checklist: Implement this lesson next week

1. Choose two short ads and two song excerpts (15–30 seconds each). Prefer current examples from 2025–2026.
2. Prepare an annotation checklist and printed peer-review rubric.
3. Run the one-lesson plan once, then schedule a follow-up production day where students create a paired piece and an ethical statement.
4. Collect student work and assess using the rubric. Use their ethical statements to spark a whole-class policy conversation.

Final thoughts and classroom-ready resources

Teaching persuasion through pop culture gives students a practical toolkit for navigating a world where marketing borrows the language of science and music sells identity. In 2026, with AI tools and wellness marketing evolving, students must learn to both decode and produce persuasive messages responsibly. This lesson plan turns their native media fluency into critical thinking and ethical practice.

Call to action

Ready to bring this unit into your classroom? Download the complete lesson pack (annotated texts, rubrics, slide deck, and teacher notes) or sign up for a live workshop where we model a full lesson and provide feedback on student work. Equip your students to read persuasion — and to create it responsibly.

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