US National Ice Cream Cone Day (September 22)
Category: Pop Culture
Media type: Tweet with image and text
Media Platform: X
Arrange students into groups of 3-4 and ask each group to apply the following steps from my book to evaluate this post. Also ask them to use the relevant indicators from the Social Media News Evaluation Game and the Is It Misleading News? game in the book’s Chapter 14. Then bring them back together and lead a class discussion to elicit students’ reactions and thoughts.
- Stop! Check for Biases and Mindset—the Author’s and Your Own
The image of the ice cream in the cone will draw most students’ eyes before they read all the text. The image is likely to trigger their preexisting biases about ice cream, based on whether they like ice cream, dislike it, or can’t eat it for dietary reasons. Before sharing, they should ask themselves:
- How does the image make me feel?
- What emotions does the image trigger?
After students read the Tweet’s title, caption, and text superimposed on the image, they should ask themselves:
- How do the image and the information in the text affect my emotions?
- How do the word choices affect my emotions?
- What cognitive biases may cause me to feel this way?
- Could confirmation bias cause me to believe the text right off the bat? Could resistance bias cause me to discount it or be skeptical? Could the groupthink/bandwagon effect cause me to accept or reject the information without thoroughly evaluating it?
Students should let their emotions settle and prepare to evaluate the media as dispassionately as possible.
- Investigate the Source
The Tweet appeared on the X account for the UL Coleman Companies, @ULColeman. This is not a mainstream source, so students should leave X and investigate the source using smart Googling tips from the book.
The account indicates that the company is headquartered in Shreveport, LA and does business in commercial and multifamily real estate, property management, leasing and brokerage, construction, and development services. It joined Twitter (now X) in 2010. Its website indicates the company was founded in 1973. So it’s clearly not in the ice cream cone business!
The image is very likely a composite image of the ice cream and cone on top of a background image. A reverse image search using Google images and Tineye does not find the composite image, or either image separately, anywhere else. Per the potential disinformation indicators from the book, the images almost certainly relate to different events, not National Ice Cream Cone Day. But UL Coleman does not falsely attribute them to National Ice Cream Cone Day. In any case, identifying the source of the images is not necessary to evaluate the overall credibility of the Tweet; the Tweet’s credibility rests on what the text says.
- Check for an Argument
Next, students should determine if the Tweet makes an argument. They should remember from earlier learning that most social media posts seek to persuade us to believe or do something. Yet many posts don’t provide sufficient reasons for us to be persuaded, often because they rely on nonexistent or weak arguments. Students should also remember that the image of the ice cream in a cone cannot make an argument but can enhance the argument the text may make. Since much of the text is superimposed on the image, we will evaluate the image and text together.
Students should try to identify the premises and a conclusion of a potential argument by putting the Tweet’s implicit and explicit sentences in standard form:
- Today is National Ice Cream Cone Day. —explicit
- Today we [most people in the US] celebrate the invention of the ice cream cone that holds ice cream. —explicit [implicit]
- The modern [US] cone is believed to have been popularized at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.—explicit [implicit]
- A prevalent story credits Syrian concessionaire Ernest A. Hamwi with popularizing the cone. —explicit
- The story says Hamwi rolled a waffle-like zalabia into an edible cone to hold ice cream.—explicit
- Hamwi did so when a neighboring vendor ran out of dishes to hold ice cream. —explicit
- [The image indicates that ice cream in a cone is delicious/tasty, etc.].—implicit
- Ice cream is one of our favorite treats.—explicit
- Every day [that you eat ice cream in a cone] is sweeter! —explicit [implicit]
- Therefore, eat ice cream in a cone today, and enjoy it! —implicit
Students should create a standard form something like this, with about 10 sentences. Sentences 1, 4-6, and 8 are explicit; 2, 3, and 9 have implicit parts; and 7 and 10 are implicit. Sentence 7 is the image’s implicit message. Students should determine that sentence 10, in bold, is the conclusion.
Students should determine that—with the addition of the implicit information—all 10 sentences would be sufficiently clear to most readers. Although one could quibble that readers might have varying interpretations of the what the image is saying, I think most readers would interpret the image as trying to convey positive feelings about ice cream and the ice cream cone.
Can we say that all 10 sentences can be either true/plausible or false, but not both? Students should recall from their prior learning that at this stage they are not determining IF each sentence is true/plausible or false, only whether there is an understanding among most readers that each sentence CAN BE only true/plausible or false. This does not mean all or most readers must agree on whether each IS true/plausible or false; each reader can determine that for themselves. In this example, students should determine that—with the inclusion of the implicit information–all the sentences can be only true/plausible or false.
However, students should notice that sentence 10 is a command: “Eat ice cream in a cone today, and enjoy it!”. According to the basic principles of logic and argumentation, none of the sentences, including the conclusion, can be a command if they are to comprise an argument.
So students should determine that the post does NOT make an argument.
If the conclusion was not a command and instead was something like, “Therefore, many people eat ice cream in an edible cone today!”, then the post WOULD make an argument.
- Determine if the Argument Satisfies the Logic Condition
Students should say they can’t determine this, because the Tweet does not make an argument.
Next, have students assume the Tweet does make an argument—that its conclusion is not a command and is worded as above. They should determine that the new argument does meet the Logic Condition as a strong argument. It is strong because the first nine sentences are premises that, IF true/plausible, would make it very likely that the conclusion would be true.
- Check for Structural (Formal) Fallacies
Students should say they can’t determine this either, because a structural fallacy is an argument—albeit a bad one–and we don’t have an argument here. Students should remember from what the book taught them that an argument with a structural fallacy has an invalid structure or form that causes it to fail the Logic Condition. In any case, if the Tweet did make an argument—if the conclusion were written as worded above—it would not contain any structural fallacies.
- Can You Fact Check It?
Per the potential disinformation indicators from the book, the Tweet does not quote or name any sources, and UL Coleman Companies is probably not an authority on the history of the ice cream cone. However, students should determine that they can fact-check sentences 1-8 by searching the Internet using smart Googling tips. Students may say they can’t fact-check sentence 9 because it’s too subjective—what does “sweeter” really mean? But they should find that sentence 9 comes along for the ride when fact-checking the other sentences, even though there is no evidence explicitly supporting it.
- Find Trusted Coverage
Although the Tweet has no links to sources for the history of the ice cream cone, students should uncover evidence from several credible news outlets regarding sentences 1-9. Most students would probably say that these reports generally corroborate all of them.
- Various reputable outlets, including Newsweek[1] and Reader’s Digest,[2] as well as the National Day Calendar, [3] indicate that September 22 of each year is US National Ice Cream Cone Day.
- These same sources are evidence that at least many of us in the US celebrate this day. However, some people don’t like ice cream (believe it or not!), or cannot eat it for dietary or other reasons, so this sentence is not entirely true.
- This sentence is generally corroborated by several reports from reputable sources, including the US Library of Congress,[4] Time,[5] and National Geographic[6]. However, although Hamwi popularized the ice cream cone, a few sources, including the International Dairy Foods Association,[7] indicate that Italo Marchiony invented and patented it in December 1903.
- The same sources that support sentence 3 generally support this sentence.
- The same sources that support sentence 3 generally support this sentence.
- The same sources that support sentence 3 generally support this sentence.
- A variety of reputable sources generally support the image’s implicit message. For example, the International Dairy Foods Association and Morning Consult[8] report that 97% of 2,200 American adults surveyed in 2024 loved or liked ice cream; of those, 47% preferred to eat it out of some type of edible cone. However, we could question the reliability of the survey because it was sponsored by the IDFA, which has a stake in people buying ice cream. And some reputable sources indicate that the popularity of ice cream has fallen since the 1990s. CNN reports[9], for example, that the average American, as of 2021, was eating a third less by pound than they did in 1986. The US Department of Agriculture[10] also flagged a decline in consumption from 2000 to 2001. But most evidence says that most Americans still like and can eat ice cream; they just do so less often.
- Several reputable reports support this sentence. For example, CBS News[11] cites a random survey[12] of 5,000 general population Americans conducted by market research company OnePoll between July 14 and July 21, 2023. The survey indicates that ice cream was the most popular dessert–55% favor ice cream vice 35% for cookies and 32% for chocolate. A survey by Insider Monkey,[13] based on the number of mentions on Reddit, showed ice cream as third in popularity. It’s reasonable to conclude that significant numbers of those Redditors prefer eating ice cream in an edible cone.
- Most students should conclude that the evidence for the other sentences generally supports this sentence.
- Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to Their Original Context
The history about the ice cream cone has been stripped of some context, presumably so it is punchy and fits nicely into the relatively small space a Tweet allows. For example, the second line of the Tweet, “Today we celebrate the delightful invention…” is misleading. It suggests that the text that follows is about the invention. Actually, the information on top of the image discusses how the cone was “popularized,” not how it was invented. As we discovered in fact-checking sentences 3 and 4, some reputable sources attribute the invention of an edible cone to Marchiony. So readers can easily miss the distinction between who invented versus who popularized the edible cone. Students should flag this distinction.
Per the potential disinformation indicators in the book, the Tweet is an implicit ad for the UL Coleman Companies, because the Tweet sends a positive, civic-minded image of the company. It is one of a series of Tweets and other social media posts from the company honoring various holidays and other occasions. There are no links in its posts to pages asking for payment or contact information.
- Check for Manipulation Tactics
Students should determine that there are no manipulation tactics in the post.
- Check for Deceptive Use of Artificial Intelligence
Students should determine that there are no indicators that AI is used deceptively in the post.
- Determine if the Argument Satisfies the Truth Condition
Students should say they can’t determine this, because the Tweet does not make an argument.
Next, have students assume the Tweet does make an argument—that its conclusion is not a command and is worded as, “Therefore, many people eat ice cream in an edible cone today!” Now, students can determine if it satisfies the Truth Condition.
Students should remember that for the Tweet to satisfy the Truth Condition, all the new argument’s premises need to be true or plausible after fact-checking. Our fact-check indicates that the new argument’s premises 1-8 are true or plausible and premise 9 is at least plausible—after all, who would eat ice cream in a cone if doing so makes the day less sweet, literally or figuratively? One could quibble that technically, premises 3-6 are irrelevant to the argument’s conclusion, but what matters is that they are not false or implausible. The new argument satisfies the Truth Condition.
- Check for Content (Informal) Fallacies
Students should also say they can’t determine this, because a content fallacy occurs in an argument—albeit a bad one—and we don’t have an argument here. An argument with a content fallacy has a main premise that most people would consider incorrect, implausible, or irrelevant and causes the argument to fail the Truth Condition.
Next, have students evaluate this as an argument—with the conclusion written not as a command but as above. They should consider sentence 2 to be the main premise. Given that their fact-checking indicates that most Americans love or like ice cream, this premise is plausible. The new argument does not contain any content fallacies.
- Overall Evaluation of the Media
The Tweet’s image almost certainly relates to different events, but there is no reason to think this is intended to be disinformation.
Students should conclude that the Tweet does not make an argument as the term is used in logic and argumentation, because the conclusion is a command. Students should not be persuaded by the Tweet.
The new argument, with the revised conclusion that is not a command, does make an argument. And it meets the Logic and Truth Conditions. Students should find the new argument persuasive.
[1] National Ice Cream Cone Day: Deals, Discounts and Offers from Baskin Robbins, Ice Cream Jubilee and More – Newsweek
[2] September Holidays & Observances 2024 | Daily, Weekly, Monthly (rd.com)
[3] NATIONAL ICE CREAM CONE DAY – September 22 – National Day Calendar
[4] Today in History – July 23 | Library of Congress (loc.gov)
[5] Free Cone Day History: Who Invented Ice Cream Cones? | TIME
[6] The Murky, Delicious History of the Ice Cream Cone – National Geographic Education Blog
[7] The History of the Ice Cream Cone – IDFA
[8] International Dairy Foods Association (idfa.org)
[9] How America fell out of love with ice cream | CNN Business
[11] How often do Americans eat dessert? – CBS Minnesota (cbsnews.com)
[12] Which state has the biggest sweet tooth? – digitalhub US (swnsdigital.com)
Media Literacy Sleuth 
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