Twice Beckoned*

Whilst undergoing my daily meditation (okay, so I was "mindfully" washing dishes and listening to a Paul Collier playlist on YouTube, but still, it was very Zen)—I pondered the implications and opportunities within the recent Kenneth Cole billboard hoopla and how it could be used in a class.

I see a powerful lesson on visual rhetorical analysis for high school students, here.  Visual literacy is often completely over-looked, but it comprises a significant amount of today’s rhetoric, whether in the guise of static images, cartoons, or commercials. Their coercive subtlety is belied by the hugeness of the message, and students can unknowingly perpetuate a problem if they don't understand how to analyze visual rhetoric. 

As a context, before students even look at the image, they may need help understanding the distinctions between concepts such as group libel, bashing, and free speech. Once they determine their definitions of these terms, we could then move to an analysis of the image and the lesson in Visual Rhetoric. 

 

What specific argument does this billboard make? (What does it say about education, teachers, and/or students?)

How does it make the argument?  (Thinking in terms of graphics: the image of the model, use of color, visual format, font distinction, and text: implications of wordplay, use of pun, diction, and tone)

Why is the argument significant or exigent? (Connection to current events, zeitgeist)

How well does it make the argument? (Who is the target audience, based on the sponsor and image? How well does it reach this group?)

What seems to be the purpose of the billboard? (Ultimately, what did Kenneth Cole desire to do? Sell clothes? Send people to website?  Motivate for change?)

After students have determined the ins and outs of what Kenneth Cole strives to do and how well they do it, we could let them know what occurred as a result of this billboard—the overwhelming demand by teachers (mostly) to have it removed and the tweeted concession of the company: 

“We misrepresented the issue – one too complex for a  

billboard – and are taking it down.”

Have students evaluate the response of the educators to the billboard and the response of the company to the educators.  They could consider, amongst other appropriate responses that you would find for the lesson, this NY teacher’s analysis:  “the billboard’s effect was to ‘trash’ the teaching profession.”  Determining the validity of his/her point may also prove fruitful for analysis. 

Ask them how they might respond were they in either pair of shoes (those of the company, those of the teachers).  A nifty homework assignment might be the creation of a billboard in response, either in support or opposition to the argument Cole presented and the actions taken.

As Sabrina Stevens notes in her article on the same topic, “this is just one small victory in a much larger battle.”  (The victory being the removal of the billboard.)

Agreed. It was a small victory, and there is a larger battle. However, had we taken a moment to avoid the impulse to remove it and instead considered using it as a means for authentic discourse, we may have made greater strides in winning the battle.  

If teachers are to actually change perceptions as opposed to simply reacting to them, we’ll need to willingly open the discussion, not close it down. 

As the company notes, they’ve misrepresented the issue—the issue they have doesn’t go away because they’ve taken down their billboard. They didn’t say they were “wrong” on their issue, only that they screwed up in how (and by implication, how well) they presented it.   

We can fight with reason or might. However, by fighting with reason and understanding, we might more closely heed Dale Carnegie’s admonition that "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." 

We might win the battle.

*Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards." ~ William Arthur Ward