About Talia Whyte

Posts by Talia Whyte:

Girl Scouts, Digital Cookie & the Value of In Person Interaction

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Girl Scouts using the new Digital Cookie platform. Image credit: Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts have come a long way since the days I was selling cookies.  The original “girl power” group recently announced that it will now allows its girls to sell their famous cookies online.  The Digital Cookie platform allow Girl Scouts to create their own customized websites or mobile apps.

It was only a matter of time the organization would have to engage with e-commerce, since that is the way most people make purchases today.  Online marketing and sales are great skills to have, especially for young entrepreneurs.  I know looking back at my time with the Girl Scouts, I wished I could have utilized Facebook, created a website or run a Constant Contact email campaign.

However, the best and most important part of running a small business is the face to face interaction with a customer.  Talking to clients in person forces you to learn how to make a sales pitch.  When I sold cookies, I had to make the case for why a potential customer should purchase from me.

It’s about making eye contact, really listening to the customer and understanding what they want and what they can get from you.  Face to face interaction also means learning how to deal with rejection when a sale doesn’t go through and starting over.  These are all skill sets that you not only need to be an entrepreneur, but also the kind of people skills needed to survive in life.

While technology is a great thing, I also feel like today’s youth don’t have these people skills anymore.  Digital natives only talk in their own language via social media.  Even my own kids in my family seem to only want to talk to me via text message!

The other side of this issue are the safety concerns among some parents and privacy experts.  According to Digital Cookie, girls can choose to created a webpage on the platform with their picture and their first name.  The girls have the option to write a short letter on the page about their cookie campaign.  There is a concern that the girls could be exposed to online predators.  But most likely if the girls are already online using Twitter or Instagram, their online safety is already at risk.

I see this as a perfect opportunity for both the Girl Scouts and parents.  For one thing, the organization should maintain that the girls sell a minimum percentage of cookies through in person interaction, while learning e-commerce techniques through online sales.  Also, the Digital Cookie program should provide training for both the girls and their parents on how to stay safe online.

I think this new initiative is a great way for the organization to open a new chapter in its long history by being relevant to the needs of today’s young girls.

ACT-UP, Gran Fury & The Legacy of HIV/AIDS Activist Branding

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silence equals death

With all the hysteria in the United States around Ebola, it is easy to forget that 25 years ago there was similar fear for another then little known disease called AIDS.  I remember when in the late 1980s there was also a call to actually quarantine those believed to most likely contact HIV, or the “4H Club” – hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, Haitians and homosexuals.  This movement was led by perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who thought AIDS was a plot by the “Soviet War Machine.”

Responses from government and public leaders to the AIDS crisis was dismal.  President Reagan did not even say the word AIDS until 1987, when he proposed cuts to AIDS treatment funding and rolling back mandatory testing legislation.  The Christian Right used AIDS to demonize the LGBT community, and William Buckley wrote in a New York Times piece that AIDS victims should be tattooed on their upper arms and behinds like a Scarlet Letter to prevent further spread of the disease.

Fed up with the hysteria and misinformation, a group of activists got together in the spring of 1987 to form ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).  Over the next five years they would engage in direct actions that would force the Reagan administration, the media and Big Pharma to pay attention.

This was thanks due in large part to the group’s “marketing department” Gran Fury, a volunteer collective of artists and graphic designers who were charged with creating some of ACT-UP’s most cutting edge graphics, posters, films, billboards, performance art and other brand messaging.

ACT-UP is best known for the above graphic “Silence = Death,” which simply states the urgency of the crisis.  During the Holocaust, gay prisoners were forced to wear pink triangles on their clothing in concentration camps before they were sent to their death.  Gran Fury used the symbol to remind people that not speaking out about this injustice was like death.

This soon became the logo for ACT-UP, which made it’s first official appearance at the New York City LGBT Pride parade in 1987 on t-shirts and banners.  The media quickly noticed the “silence”, as the whole parade looked like a perfectly choreographed staging of the pink triangle.  Although at the time Gran Fury didn’t consciously think this was their brand strategy, they later realized the value of having a uniformed message for the media and spectators.

Legendary artist Keith Haring also used the same messaging of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” in his piece.

Act up poster by Keith Haring

Gran Fury launched the 1989 New York City bus ad campaign “Kissing Doesn’t Kill,” which looked similar to Benetton United Colors advertising. The ad showed three couples of diverse races and sexualities to highlight that AIDS doesn’t spread through casual touching.  It was created to intentionally confuse viewers. Like Benetton, ACT-UP wanted to also promote tolerance among all races, colors and sexual orientations.

kissing doesn't kill poster

At the time, images of interracial and same sex couples kissing in such a public display was a highly charged issue.  When the ad began appearing on buses in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Chicago, Gran Fury agreed to remove “Corporate Greed, Government Inaction and Public Indifference Make AIDS a Political Issue” in order to reach larger audiences, but this still infuriated some people.  The Illinois State Senate actually prohibited the ad on Chicago Transit Authority vehicles because it feared children would be exposed to the gay lifestyle.

By the early 1990s the tactics of ACT-UP forced the government to enact AIDS legislation, pharmaceutical firms to provide better, more accessible treatment for AIDS victims, and the media to talk about the crisis on its front pages.  Gran Fury will be remembered for creating hard-hitting graphics that agitated for change.  Both social activists, health workers and even marketing executives alike can take lessons from Grand Fury that can still be used today.

Here are some more graphics from the ACT-UP era:

Act Up posters Act Up posters Act Up Posters Act Up Posters

Native Americans, Alcoholism & The Healing of Thanksgiving

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The Mourning Road to ThankgivingFor most Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends over a plate of turkey and a football game.  However, for Native Americans, this holiday brings up some bad memories that have become a scar on American history.

I recently attended a lecture by Native American writer Larry “Spotted Crow” Mann who discussed his latest book, The Mourning Road To Thanksgiving.  Mann, a member of the Nipmuc tribe of Massachusetts, is an activist and contributor to Indian Country News.  He also works with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on sobriety issues among Native Americans.

In his lecture, he talked about how the real first Thanksgiving went down, contrary to common belief, and the lingering effects on Native Americans today.

“My existence is because of colonial resistance,” he said.

Mann states that the first Thanksgiving was really an English harvest festival.  Native Americans were not invited to this feast; they actually just showed up to see what was going on.  They stayed, but didn’t sit around a table; they sat on the ground.  Mann says that the meal was a “segregated event,” as the English didn’t want any interaction with Native Americans.  The English were careful to keep their women and children away from Native Americans because of their so-called “voodoo and heathen” activities.

“The English came here for freedom of religion, but weren’t interested in extending that belief to Native Americans,” Mann said.

Native Americans lost all their freedom eventually, as they were actually the first slaves.  Nonetheless, as many of them couldn’t handle the stress of enslavement, Native Americans began to die in large numbers from suicide and smallpox.

Alcohol was also introduced to Native Americans by the English in exchange for their land, which has had a devastating effect on this group ever since.  There is an ongoing argument about whether or not Native Americans are predisposed to alcoholism; however, statistics show they are disproportionately affected by it today.

According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 12 percent of Native Americans are heavy drinkers, which is higher than any other ethnic group.  Alcoholism attributes to 65 percent of car accidents on reservations and 48 percent of vehicular deaths among Native Americans.  Alcohol also plays a role in the higher rate of suicides, murders and other forms of violence among the population.  Native American women are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse and rape than other ethnic groups in the United States.  Alcohol also causes higher rates of liver disease and cirrhosis, which is one of the leading causes of death for the population.

Mann had a hard childhood and grew up in a non-Native school.  He was an alcoholic in his twenties, but stopped drinking cold turkey when he learned about how the disease has devastated his tribe.

Mann has many thoughts about how he feels about the English now, but I don’t want to spoil it, so you have to read his book!  But he did say that time can be healing and we should use this time of thanksgiving to educate future generations to not repeat the mistakes of past generations.

“If you don’t know your past, how do we heal the future,” Mann said.

Why The STEM Economy Is Gaining STEAM

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steamSTEM has a branding problem.

A couple of weeks ago I had my regular meeting with Cynthia and Keyshia, two students I am mentoring. In our latest gathering, I asked them if they had any thoughts on the role of the arts in STEM fields.  Both of them were confused at first and thought I was joking.  They didn’t realize that the arts played an important role in these traditionally technical fields.

I explained to them the roles a web designer and a web developer play in building a website.  I think a recent Ask GWA post really did a good job explaining this:

…To put it into a different context, let’s think of a car.  Web designers are in charge of how the car looks and feels, such as the color and design inside and outside, the shape and comfort of the car seats, the texture and use of the steering wheel and even the smell of the car.  Web developers deal with how the car functions, like making sure the engine works in relation to the steering wheel, brakes and the gas tank, fixing a bad muffler and even making sure the radio works…

The same can be said about the iPhone.  One of the reasons it is such a popular phone is not only because of its superior functionality, but also for its beautiful design.

I’m glad STEAM industries are getting more attention, especially in U.S. schools.  Below I found these two videos that talk about this growing movement.

Renowned graphic designer John Maeda discusses the role of the arts in technical industries.

Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman, co-founders of the Two Bit Circus, talk about the STEAM Carnival.

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