These days, newspapers, politicians - even charity organizations - are learning a lesson that Hollywood's known for years: If you want to grab people, you need to grab them visually - with an image. Catch their eye and their minds and hearts will follow.
Earlier this year, Robert White, a Denver man dealing in human resource programs, issued a collection of gorgeous photographs called "One World, One People" to help raise funds for his seminars.The Sierra Club has gone to the bank on such projects for years.
Now, the latest "eye candy" coffee table fund-raiser comes to us from Falcon Press. The proceeds will go to help the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities - a humanitarian branch of the company. The organization helps children with reading, writing and other skills.
And it also puts out a pretty fine book of photographs.
"America on My Mind" is, in honesty, a keeper - in the way Norman Rockwell's art is a keeper. I'm not sure how much this book or Norman Rockwell tell us about America, but they tell us volumes about our concept of America. There are hundreds of color photographs here, every one more stunning than the next. We get photos of Americans singing, dancing, skating, bathing and baling hay. There are photos of our national parks, our national monuments and our national pastime. Pictures dominate, broken up here and there by quotes from famous Americans or children who've been able to dab fresh paint on our old feelings about life and liberty.
Part of that "dabbing" was a project by the Young Writers Project. Some 18,000 children from across the country entered the national writing competition. The top 100 entries are featured in "America on My Mind." Utah's Nicole Lindsley from Sandy was chosen for her poem "In Search of the Ancient Ones," a piece about the Anasazi and the Utah landscape.
And almost on cue, it would seem, local photographers came up with photos that worked well with her theme. Utah fares very well in the book. There are eye-popping photos of Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Zion Canyon in winter, Otter Creek and shots of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Colorado Plateau and other things of regional interest. Names we've come to recognize in Utah - Stephen Trimble, Tom Till, Fred Hirschmann - surface time and again in the photo credits.
Like the McDonald's Charities, "America on My Mind" was meant to cut across the spectrum of all races, creeds, ethnic groups and regions.
It does that - in both its text and illustrations.
With Christmas coming up, this one's a pretty good gift idea.