Wednesday February 2, 2005
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Just when you think your bright ideas for success have ended, the extraordinary happens. This is the case for ex-model Russell Christoff, who wakes up $15.6 million richer this morning following a legal dispute with Nestle USA. A jury decided this amount was the right amount of damages for Nestle using images of Mr. Christoff’s face on their Taster’s Choice coffee products for years without his knowledge or permission. Christoff, 58, is now a kindergarten teacher in San Francisco and had given up on his modeling career years ago. He had minor successes, such as promotional videos and his own public TV show, but decided to call it a day and became a kid’s teacher. Then he became an overnight multi-millionaire.

He had tried to be a Nestle model in 1986 and did a photo shoot with the company’s advertising agency, but nothing came of it, or so he thought. Fast forward 16 years and Christoff was out food shopping when he suddenly noticed a coffee jar with his face on it. This got the alarm bells ringing and he immediately took legal action against Nestle. Christoff discovered his image had been on coffee jars throughout the world. For its part, Nestle said the photo had been used mistakenly. A company lawyer said, “The employee that pulled the photo thought they had consent to use the picture”. The damages awarded to Mr. Christoff were for using his image without his permission and are 5% of the profits from Taster’s Choice for the past 16 years.

Lesson & plan in Word.doc

Example Class Handout in .pdf

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about coffee / bright ideas / multi-millionaire / amazing luck / modeling / Nestle and Nescafe / suing big companies …

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. COFFEE BRAINSTORM: Ask the class for all the different words they associate with coffee. Write them on the board and use as a springboard for discussion.

3. MY BEST PIECE OF LUCK: Talk to your partner about the luckiest you have been in your life. Have you had any good luck this week? This year? Talk also about the worst luck you’ve had. Change partners and tell your new partner about your old partner.

4. 2-MINUTE COFFEE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
(a)  $15 million is way too much. vs. Nestle made a lot of money from the coffee.
(b) Nestle should have told Mr. Christoff they used his photo. vs  It’s a big company.
(c)  Coffee is better than tea. vs Tea is better than coffee.
(d)  Instant coffee is delicious. vs. Instant coffee is horrible.
(e)  Espresso and cappuccino are best. vs. The cups are too small.
(f)  Starbucks is the greatest coffee shop. vs. You can’t beat the small, locally owned,
      traditional coffee shops.
(g)  Coffee is bad for your health. vs. It wakes me up in the morning.
(h)  We should buy fair trade coffee and help the poor coffee farmers, not multi-national
       coffee. Vs. Fair trade coffee is too expensive.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘bright’, and ‘idea’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements about the article are true or false:

(a)  Somebody had a bright idea and became very successful.  T / F
(b)  Somebody woke up this morning and was suddenly very very rich.  T / F
(c)  Somebody sued Nestle (Nescafe) and won a lot of damages.  T / F
(d)  Somebody had skin problems after drinking Nestle’s coffee.  T / F
(e)  A model’s face was used without permission on a coffee jar. T / F
(f)  Nestle used a photo of a model for 16 years without telling the model.  T / F
(g)  The photo was used by mistake. T / F
(h)  Mr. Christoff drinks Taster’s Choice every day. T / F

3. DEFINITIONS: Students match the following words with the most likely definitions (Please think about the headline!):

(a) bright idea (n)
(i) an intelligent, good, helpful  or useful thought
(ii) thinking about something to improve the lighting in your room / house

(b) extraordinary (adj)
(i) a special kind of share traded on world coffee markets that are risky, but may give you lots of money
(ii) much more amazing than what is usual or normal

(c) legal (adj)
(i) anything to do with or concerning the law and lawyers
(ii) when you drink so much coffee you become dizzy and lose control of your legs

(d) dispute (n)
(i) an ongoing  disagreement between two people, companies, countries …
(ii) a method of coffee making similar to espresso

(e) damages (n)
(i) barriers needed to make special lakes to ensure coffee plantations always have water
(ii) the amount of money a court awards you if you sue a company, or have been wronged by someone

(f) permission (n)
(i) someone saying (or writing) that it is OK with them that you can do something
(ii) when you really really want to have a change of hairstyle

(g) photo shoot (n)
(i) the dangers a news photographer faces when reporting in a war zone
(ii) when a photographer takes photographs of a model for an advertising campaign

(h) noticed (v)
(i) suddenly saw and became aware of something
(ii) when all the ice cubes in the coffee have melted

(i) consent (n)
(i) to allow someone to do something, to give your permission
(ii) the small holes in the wall for putting an electric plug into

(j) profits (n)
(i) the money a company makes when deducting costs from revenues
(ii) expert tailors or dressmakers who can make a hand-made suit in 3 hours

4. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	bright	say-so
(b)	success	move on
(c)	extraordinary	sudden
(d)	permission	accomplishment
(e)	minor	out of this world
(f)	overnight	permission
(g)	fast forward	rewards
(h)	take legal action	intelligent
(i)	consent	insignificant
(j)	profits	sue

5. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	bright ideas	successes
(b)	legal	awarded to Mr. Christoff
(c)	A jury decided	16 years
(d)	coffee	millionaire
(e)	He had minor	dispute
(f)	multi	permission
(g)	nothing came	for success
(h)	fast forward	this amount was the right amount
(i)	The damages	of it
(j)	without his	products

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

$15 million coffee face

Just when you think your __________ ideas for success have ended, the extraordinary happens. This is the __________ for ex-model Russell Christoff, who wakes up $15.6 million richer this morning following a legal dispute with Nestle USA. A jury decided this amount was the right __________ of damages for Nestle using images of Mr. Christoff’s face on their Taster’s Choice coffee products for years without his __________ or permission. Christoff, 58, is now a kindergarten teacher in San Francisco and had given up on his modeling career years ago. He had __________ successes, such as promotional videos and his own public TV show, but decided to call it a day and became a kid’s teacher. Then he became an overnight multi-millionaire.		case       amount      bright      minor      knowledge
He had tried to be a Nestle model in 1986 and did a photo __________ with the company’s advertising agency, but __________ came of it, or so he thought. Fast forward 16 years and Christoff was out food shopping when he suddenly noticed a coffee jar with his face on it. This got the alarm bells ringing and he immediately __________ legal action against Nestle. Christoff discovered his image had been on coffee jars throughout the world. For its part, Nestle said the photo had been used mistakenly. A company lawyer said, “The employee that pulled the photo thought they had __________ to use the picture”. The damages awarded to Mr. Christoff were for using his image without his permission and are 5% of the __________ from Taster’s Choice for the past 16 years. By the way, Mr. Christoff never drinks Taster’s Choice, he prefers beans.		took       legal      nothing      shoot      consent

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘BRIGHT’/ ‘IDEA’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:
(a)  What role, or what part does coffee play in your life?
(b)  What was the last bright idea you had? Did it work?
(c)  Have you ever been really lucky?
(d)  Do you have any bright ideas to be successful?
(e)  Is $15 million the right amount of damages in a case like this?
(f)  What is your favorite coffee?
(g)  Do you ever go to coffee shops? What do you like about them?
(h)  If you saw your smiling photo on a coffee jar in the supermarket, what would you do?
(i)  Would you like to be a model? Why (not)?
(j)  If you woke up $15 million richer one morning, what would you do on that morning? / that day? / that week?
(k)  Do you ever buy or think about free trade coffee and the issues surrounding it?
(l)  How does drinking coffee (or another drink if you don’t drink coffee) make you feel?
(m)  Is coffee healthy?
(n)  Don’t you feel sorry for all the small, traditional, family-owned coffee shops that are being put out of business by Starbucks and other multi-nationals?
(o)  What do you think of the smell of freshly brewed coffee?
(p)  Teacher / Student additional questions

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on coffee. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. COFFEE POSTER: Create a poster showing the healthy coffee lifestyle.

4. FREE TRADE COFFEE: Write a short article for a newspaper outlining what free trade coffee is and why we should be buying it.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

(a)  Somebody had a bright idea and became very successful.  F
(b)  Somebody woke up this morning and was suddenly very very rich.  T
(c)  Somebody sued Nestle (Nescafe) and won a lot of damages.  T
(d)  Somebody had skin problems after drinking Nestle’s coffee.  F
(e)  A model’s face was used without permission on a coffee jar. T
(f)  Nestle used a photo of a model for 16 years without telling the model.  T
(g)  The photo was used by mistake. T
(h)  Mr. Christoff drinks Taster’s Choice every day.  F

DEFINITIONS:

(a) bright idea (n)
(i) an intelligent, good, helpful  or useful thought

(b) extraordinary (adj)
(ii) much more amazing than what is usual or normal

(c) legal (adj)
(i) anything to do with or concerning the law and lawyers

(d) dispute (n)
(i) an ongoing  disagreement between two people, companies, countries …

(e) damages (n)
(ii) the amount of money a court awards you if you sue a company, or have been wronged by someone

(f) permission (n)
(i) someone saying (or writing) that it is OK with them that you can do something

(g) photo shoot (n)
(ii) when a photographer takes photographs of a model for an advertising campaign

(h) noticed (v)
(i) suddenly saw and became aware of something

(i) consent (n)
(i) to allow someone to do something, to give your permission

(j) profits (n)
(i) the money a company makes when deducting costs from revenues

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	bright	intelligent
(b)	success	accomplishment
(c)	extraordinary	out of this world
(d)	permission	say-so
(e)	minor	insignificant
(f)	overnight	sudden
(g)	fast forward	move on
(h)	take legal action	sue
(i)	consent	permission
(j)	profits	rewards

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	bright ideas	for success
(b)	legal	dispute
(c)	A jury decided	this amount was the right amount
(d)	coffee	products
(e)	He had minor	successes
(f)	multi	millionaire
(g)	nothing came	of it
(h)	fast forward	16 years
(i)	The damages	awarded to Mr. Christoff
(j)	without his	permission

GAP FILL:

$15 million coffee face

Just when you think your bright ideas for success have ended, the extraordinary happens. This is the case for ex-model Russell Christoff, who wakes up $15.6 million richer this morning following a legal dispute with Nestle USA. A jury decided this amount was the right amount of damages for Nestle using images of Mr. Christoff’s face on their Taster’s Choice coffee products for years without his knowledge or permission. Christoff, 58, is now a kindergarten teacher in San Francisco and had given up on his modeling career years ago. He had minor successes, such as promotional videos and his own public TV show, but decided to call it a day and became a kid’s teacher. Then he became an overnight multi-millionaire.

He had tried to be a Nestle model in 1986 and did a photo shoot with the company’s advertising agency, but nothing came of it, or so he thought. Fast forward 16 years and Christoff was out food shopping when he suddenly noticed a coffee jar with his face on it. This got the alarm bells ringing and he immediately took legal action against Nestle. Christoff discovered his image had been on coffee jars throughout the world. For its part, Nestle said the photo had been used mistakenly. A company lawyer said, “The employee that pulled the photo thought they had consent to use the picture”. The damages awarded to Mr. Christoff were for using his image without his permission and are 5% of the profits from Taster’s Choice for the past 16 years. By the way, Mr. Christoff never drinks Taster’s Choice, he prefers beans.