And Vice Versa

Neil Postman began his book, Teaching as a Conserving Activity, by saying that he and Charlie Weingartner should have ended their popular co-authored volume, Teaching as a Subversive Activity, by saying, or vice versa, because the argument that they were making was true in the context of its times, but could be wrong at a different time (and in fact was wrong a decade later when he wrote the Conserving book).  And true to this principle, he ended Teaching as a Conserving Activity by saying, or vice versa! 

At least, that's the memory that was triggered when I saw the following video, The Future of Publishing, which begins with the standard notion that the age of print is dead, and halfway through provides the vice versa in a very creative manner.   There's no real argument being made here, it's just a clever way to show how you can frame your view on the future of publishing in a positive or negative way, and has nothing to do with the reality of book sales, consumer research for the publishing industry, or the evolving electronic media environment.  

Anyway, it's fun to watch.  Here, take a look, but be sure to watch and read the whole thing:

The description for the video over on YouTube reads:

This video was prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books and produced by Khaki Films (http://www.thekhakigroup.com/). Originally meant solely for a DK sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally. We hope you enjoy it (and make sure you watch it up to at least the halfway point, there's a surprise!).

 As it turns out, The Future of Publishing was inspired by another video that I had seen on YouTube a while ago, Lost Generation.  Here it is:

The description for this video explains that it "was created for the AARP U@50 video contest and placed second," and that it's "based on the Argentinian Political Advertisement "The Truth" by RECREAR."  So, that's where this all started.  And thanks to YouTube, we can take a look at it as well.  Here's the original, Spanish version:

And the description listed the following:

Title: TRUTH
Advertiser: RECREAR
Product or Service: POLITICAL MESSAGE
Entrant Company, City: SAVAGLIO\TBWA, Buenos Aires
Country: ARGENTINA
Advertising Agency, City: SAVAGLIO\TBWA, Buenos Aires
Country: ARG This excellent political advertisement, it won the silver lion in the Cannes Lions Contest 2006.

And there's even an English translation available on YouTube:

And there you have it, and vice versa brought to life, or at least turned into an audiovisual reversi!

The irony in all this is that the Penguin version that I began with, The Future of Publishing, is an attempt to argue for the continued appeal of book publishing by presenting text in a way that print media cannot, as a moving image.