Time well spent with fourth graders

 

Somewhere back around 1992, my son Russ was in the fifth grade. I went to the Pittsburg Intermediate School to teach the children how to “Design an ad.” I went back this year but to the fourth grade instead of the fifth.

 

You would be surprised how intimidating it is standing in front of those children waiting to spew out instructions with no formal training. I passed out all the crayons, paper and I had showed them pictures of magazine ads to help them get a clear picture of what the concept is. I remember we used McDonalds and some other advertising that appealed to their age group. Companies pay thousands of dollars for ad composition, and then thousands more to place them in publications. Why not steal ideas from the pros, right?

 

Back in 1992, Lew Brown and John Nickerson owned La-Z-Boy franchises and had an office in Pittsburg since they both lived here. They advertisers for the children to choose from.

 

One of the little girls chose La-Z-Boy recliners for an ad to design. But she wasn’t sure what a La-Z-Boy recliner was, so she came to ask me. My explanation went something like this: La-Z-Boy recliners are so comfortable that when your daddy comes home and sits down in the chair, he can recline it in front of the television, and because it’s so comfortable, he falls fast asleep.

 

She said, “Okay” as if she understood perfectly and went back to her desk to design an ad. Most of the children had finished designing their ad but she was taking her time. In a few minutes, Fredrika made her way to the front to show me her ad and when I read it I erupted in laughter. All of the children rushed to my desk and wanted to know what her ad said. She wrote: La-Z-Boy recliners is for sorry men!

 

I simply couldn’t catch my breath; I was laughing so hard. After I calmed down, I started thinking about what she actually said. I don’t know why I felt it was important for me to me to tell her we might need to clean it up a bit, but I did. I delicately explained to her that I didn’t feel the word “sorry” was appropriate. I didn’t want to discourage her but I felt her daddy might not like it. I tried to explain to her it provided a certain amount of negativity by using the word ‘sorry.’ She listened and took it back to her desk and the final headline read, La-Z-Boy Recliners is men relaxin! I bragged and bragged on her for changing it but I will never forget that story as long as I live. Sometime in her young life she had been told that some men were sorry if they just laid around the house.

To continue reading this column purchase the June 19^th edition of The Pittsburg Gazette or go to our online e-edition at: http://www.etypeservices.com/Pittsburg%20GazetteID315/default.aspx