What I learned from my granddaughter’s college thesis paper

I recently returned from the University of Oregon where my almost 22-year-old granddaughter, Shayna, graduated and I must kvell, Cum Laude! Such an exciting weekend to celebrate her many accomplishments. As an Art/Journalism/Media/Branding Major, she had a variety of classes in each subject to give her a direction as to where she wants to focus on a career. She is a wonderful artist via painting, sketching and digital design. I started taking her to art classes at age seven and she’s never stopped creating! My home is filled with her works of art.

Since high school and during her college years, she has worked at several well-known clothing stores where she was their Design Specialist and created the stores’ fashion displays. Her varied classes in Art, Design and Branding seem to be where she is headed. So, when she wrote a 30-page thesis paper called How Sustainability is Perceived and Prioritized in the Visual Branding of Bamboo Paper Products, I was curious how she got to this subject!

If you are wondering what this has to do with us Jewish Baby Boomer Elders, let me share the ah-ah moments I had while reading her paper because it opened a flood of questions for me about social branding, how information is often wrapped in pretty paper and when language and visuals are misleading.

The more I read the thesis, the more my mind kept getting off track and I kept hearing avoice murmuring in my head that began to shout, “Accountability for media sound bites! Transparency from our leaders! Shades of Antisemitism!” I had to spend time connecting the dots between what I was learning from Shayna’s paper and the world we live in today, how information is disseminated and how implicit it is

Shayna’s paper presents the premise that: “As the climate change crisis deepens, more people consider where their products come from, how they are made, and how they align with the environment, which begs the question, ‘How are companies branding and advertising their logos, colors, tones and design elements to communicate their values, ethics and goals?’”

In other words, what Shayna is asking, “Are companies using visuals to attract our attention and emotions to their goods so we have an immediate connection to the product without knowing the full story behind the product?”

In other words, for me, I was trying to read beyond the thesis paper to see more clearly how we’re inundated and exposed to subliminal messaging via cues in news, narratives, language, imagery and visuals that shape our perception of truths and present a version of truth that is not grounded in reality and often constructed, rather than being factual.

Should we become more aware of how deeply we’ve been manipulated by suggestive content creation that is disguised as news or facts and promotes half-truths as plausible realities?

Shayna’s ah-ah moment came one day while in Whole Foods where she noticed in the toilet paper section stacks of individual rolls of toilet paper wrapped in wild colors and geometric designs to appear as wrapping paper! Her love for packaging color and design are like breathing to her, so she filled her basket with beautiful rolls of toilet (the brand is called, “Who Gives a Crap.” Catchy!) On another trip to Whole Foods, she was drawn to a big box of toilet paper wrapped in a pale blue color with thick kelly green writing and noticed the packaging emphasized “Made from Bambo,” which enticed her to research the difference between bamboo products and recycled. Her discovery was that Bamboo is eco-friendly/tree free, replaces plastic, is renewable and grown sustainably.

She now had her thesis idea because as someone who desires a career in designing and branding merchandise for companies, she had to learn more how her work would influence the consumer: “My research will examine how design strategies influence the perception and success of bamboo paper products with a focus on the role of visual branding in communicating sustainability and how essential visuals are for building trust and market success.”

“Impressive,”I thought.

After reading all of Shayna’s 30 pages, I learned about “greenwashing,” which she brought to light as an important factor in advertising and branding.

I was unfamiliar with the word and immediately wondered if there was a parallel with “whitewashing.”

Greenwashing is a technique companies or organizations use to falsely market themselves as environmentally friendly to appear more ethical and sustainable than they really are.

It translates to “eco-friendly lying” by spending more time and money on promoting their “green” image than actually improving their environmental impact.

As an example, vague labels are created to use language like green, natural or eco with no proof of their standard, misleading packaging designed with flowers, leaves and Earth icons to suggest sustainability, and suggestions of carbon offset claims, and boasting chlorofluorocarbon-free when it is already banned by law.

Numerous consumer goods brands, oil companies and clothing companies use these harmful messages. Design and language become the hook. These are deceptive practices we should be more cognizant of.

Now I couldn’t help but wonder if greenwashing and whitewashing were related.

Whitewashing is often used in regard to race, religion and ethnicity discrimination and refers to covering up or glossing over unpleasant truths.

It describes the practice of erasing or minimizing non-white cultures in media, history or narratives while replacing the narrative with white perspectives and characteristics. It’s use of erasing identities and reinforcing racial inequity results in misinformation, prevents honest dialogue and stops progress in social change. Need I suggest how whitewashing is used in our culture today?

To my surprise, rainbow washing, or pinkwashing,suddenly appeared in my research andis used by companies to appear they superficially support LGBTQ for marketing purposes without any actual purposeful changes or without backing up sustained support.

I have been an avid Target customer from the day they opened until they recently caved to diminishing DEI and I have not walked through their doors for over four months. The elimination of their PRIDE merchandising and replacing it with a minimal display of Pride dog toys did not meet up with their past standards for community support.

Color washing,in the social marketing context,is slowly emerging as a term followinggreenwashing and pinkwashing to superficially describe and show diversity without real commitment, equity, inclusion, and is basically tokenism. It uses color associated with a movement or identity to only appear supportive without meaningful action. Through color branding, as in pink for breast cancer, red for heart health or purple for domestic violence is a PR benefit, not actual advocacy and translates to only performative activism.

All of these color washing techniques are not applicable to all companies, businesses or organizations.

But be aware.

Read labels, make informed decisions according to your values and ethics. Don’t let the disguises and inactions of companies fool you when they use a technique called “virtue signaling” that makes you think they are morally and socially aware for the sake of show while appearing to be performing goodness.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid to speak out because for meaningful changes it will depend on those who make noise and rebel against subliminal information/advertising!

My personal thesis I gleaned from digesting Shayna’s paper was not new concepts about how we receive current information, as I believe we are very well aware of deceptive tactics, selective framing and hidden agendas.

We know that certain media outlets gear to shape messages, inflate the public with distorted rhetoric and biased facts that are presented as truths. It’s strategically about being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” thinking we are dumb enough to buy what they are selling or do they honestly believe their own fiction?

Are we not sick of “plausible deniability” when someone in a position of authority can credibly deny knowledge or involvement in something questionable or illegal or association with someone when there is no clear evidence linking them?

A political leader might avoid knowing the details of a secret operation so they can deny responsibility if things go wrong or create a scenario to fit their narrative — does this sound currently familiar? Are images and graphics and flowery words being used to convince us of something we know doesn’t look right? Does using videos of incidents that happened days ago or reporting and distorting about widespread riots and discord support that the lead has really been buried?

We are all old enough to remember, and maybe even feel, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

The rant from the news anchor in the movie, Network, became a symbol of public outrage against media spin, the denouncement of journalists and how truth, emotion, disillusionment and public manipulation numbs the viewer.

Recently, Scott Pelley, former CBS anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent, said: “There can be no system of democracy without journalism. Journalism is the only profession protected by the Constitution. Journalism is the only thing that will save the country.”

Profound. Unflinching. Patriotic. Galvanizing. Scary.

A statement that is bold and an urgent reminder of journalism’s role in democracy.

I don’t believe I need to mention how all this dialogue and information impacts our Jewish world.

We need to foster a culture of sustainability and sustainability has to be communicated ethically as a commitment to real change. Our greatest strength lies in collective action, for those who shape the messages are the change agents, and we all need to be agents of change.

To sustain our Judaism, we need strength in our narrative, clarity in our voice and truth in our conviction. We need to prioritize who we are with meaningful storytelling, redefine what it means to be a Jew today and even if we have differences in some Jewish issues, we must be a collective voice for the world to hear.

While spending the weekend at graduation with lots of Gen Zs, I was enlightened with their commitments to world issues, concerns for the environment, climate change, recycling, social justice, LGBTQ and gender equality, immigrant and refugee support, digitally fluency with caution, the scary job market for them as college graduates, skepticism of government, and most importantly, Antisemitism. I was filled with great hope for them to be leaders in their fields, change agents for society and masters of their own dreams.

What pleases me the most about this experience at my granddaughter’s college graduation is what I learned from Shayna’s thesis paper:

That I learned from her.