BUY IT NOW! My Camp's Israel Infomercial

JAR — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:00:44 +0000

Your staff doesn't need to be fans of Mad Men in order to enjoy the process of creating a fake ad for an audience of parents who care about Israel education as one of their core reasons for sending their kid to your camp. While you can use this activity with campers, this is a particularly good program for staff to play with the questions of why Israel is important to them and to their camp.

Curriculum Themes:

Dreams & Realities

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

1 hour

Physical Space:

Age of Campers:

Staff

Core Learnings:

Israel is an important element of my camp

Explanation:

Stage 1: Setting the Stage

Introduce the activity by either playing a video of an infomercial for some random household product (many can be found on Youtube) or by performing an infomercial for a random household item (script can be taken from Youtube as well but it should be polished and delivered with intention).
Ask the participants to make a list of the ingredients within the infomercial that made the commercial successful. (There is a difference between an infomercial and a commercial - a commercial is only usually 30 seconds to 1 minute long...these can be longer).

Stage 2: The Israel infomercial

Create your infomercial! Here's a sample of what you can say:

Your group will create an infomercial to sell your camp t-shirt (or sweatpants or whatever item of clothing from camp you have to sell - it can be a whole outfit!). The t-shirts are your tools for selling the story of how your camp teaches about Israel. The idea is that you aren't just trying to get someone to buy the t-shirt – because they are only allowed to wear the shirt if they come to camp – so its about selling the lifestyle, the environment of Israel education that happens at your camp. Imagine that the audience for the infomercial is made up of parents who only are interested in sending their kid to your camp if there is some Israel component. And your camp will close if it doesn't successfully lobby the parent to send their kid.

Your infomercial must include:

a narrator
a creative use of clothing
at least one sentence in Hebrew
a joke
a debate
a surprise entrance
a cameo from the camp director
a Jewish song

Split everyone into groups (probably of no more than 3-5 people per group). The groups will have time to prepare, and then present their infomercials.
Make sure to film the presentations.
A winner will be announced after the performances (based on whatever criteria you choose).

Stage 3: Wrap-Up Discussion

Bring everyone together and lead a discussion using the following questions or any of your own:
- What did you learn about how our camp teaches about Israel?
- What ideas did you get about how we can do more creative things to teach about Israel?
- Would you want your kid to come to this camp if you felt Israel was important to you?

Variations:

Variations in format

Have your staff create a skit that can be performed during camp.
Do this program with your campers! Ask them to create promotional videos for why people should vacation in Israel. Tell them they need to include 3 facts, 2 opinions, and 2 testimonials as part of their video. They'll become great videos for your donors, your parents, and your website!

Variations in content

After your staff creates videos on Israel education, have them create a video about Israel using the same techniques. These videos can be used throughout the summer as entertainment for the campers or can be played as an introduction to an Israel activity.

The Goodman Initiative - everyone should bring (not wear) a camp t-shirt or article of clothing