Desmond Henry NOT SO long ago I wrote a piece outlining a radically new concept in the teaching and training of future generations of Jamaicans, especially children, semi-literates and total illiterates. I explained it as the motivational lynchpin around which to compose and carry out an entirely new set of stimulating, persuasive and educational activities aimed at bringing the entire country on board in new programmes of education, motivation and responsible community participation.
I proposed the imaginative redesigning and remaking of Brer Anancy, from a cynical, non-productive trickster into a loveable, embraceable teacher. I saw the new Anancy as the characteristic leader in the Prime Minister's oft-vaunted programme of Values and Attitudes.
Well, no one even paid me any mind at the time - not the PM, not the JIS, not the Ministry of Education, not any from our vaunted communication centres whether on or off campus. In fact the only enthusiastic response I have ever received to the concept, was from RJR's Allan Magnus' daughter Kelly, who is a practising public relations consultant in New York. She loved the concept so much that she said she would be willing to work with me if ever it got the government's go-ahead and funding.
Truth is, I have not yet officially presented the entire concept in a workable fashion to the Government, although I have laid out several creative avenues along which to take the programme. However, I am still not surprised (are you?) that no one either from the PM's office or the Ministry of Education ever indicated that "Des, you might have something there, let's talk."
All of a sudden in the wider world, up comes the Walt Disney Company in California with an exact idea to recreate, re-present and reposition guess who? Mickey Mouse.
Under its new concept recently announced with much fanfare in the U.S. media, Mickey is to become more "hip" and to be used as Disney's marketing pivot in a redesigned merchandising enterprise. In other words, Mickey will now become a consumer seller. He is to become more ubiquitous being in every place at every time. The globally famous mouse is to become the centrepiece of movie, retailing, publishing, garment, video and television refocusing.
BRANDING POWER
Needless to say everyone's love and appreciation for Mickey will grow exponentially as his branding power is exploited. If you think he was already a cultural and role model phenomenon, you ain't seen nothing yet.
In the age of expanding graffiti art for example, Mickey is to become the artistic expression on buildings in fashion centres in Los Angeles and elsewhere. He and his brands will be even more outgoing and ever-present in entertainment centres like Disney World, if you can imagine that. His new format will include cross-country tours, parades and festivals. A syndicated comic strip is also in the works. According to news reports, perhaps the most pervasive rendition of Mickey will be in a proposed three-year campaign with the U.S. postal service. He will be used on commemorative sets of postage stamps.
You ever get the feeling that someone might be pilfering your brain during your sleep? Somehow that's how I almost feel about this. Truth is, I had in mind most of these concepts for Anancy along with some, of course, that are purely social and cultural. School design competitions, parades, placards, posters, motifs, do-as-I-do (Fancy Nancy) role-modelling sequences, and many others are all part of my initial thinking. The Anancy Cabinet for example, setting policy directives for acceptable child behaviour, would be an integral part of the new Anancy. Also would be the Rev. Anancy in Sunday schools. He would be loved, hugged and emulated.
VALUES AND ATTITUDES PROGRAMME
As I said in my first article, and I still do now, the best place to cast this entirely new set of values indoctrination would be through a revised and represented Values and Attitudes programme. It would involve a five-year marketing and merchandising blitz centred on our homes, schools, communities, shops and churches. Will it happen? I don't know. You know as well as I do what happens to ideas (Jamaican style) from time to time. If executed imaginatively, however, Brer Anancy's repositioning could turn out to be one of the most far-reaching educational campaigns ever carried out in this country. Talk about the cow jumping over the moon? That's kid stuff, compared to this.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Anyone can be a father. But it takes a man to be a dad.
Desmond Henry is a marketing consultant formerly based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, now residing in north Florida.
