Is this picture a duck or a rabbit?

Trick question: it's both.

Thomas Kuhn used the illusion to help explain his concept of the paradigm shift in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Since then, a bunch of MBAs have dragged this catchy phrase in front of every venture capitalist and across every nook and cranny of Wall Street -- working very hard to render it meaningless.

I had hoped, after the 2000-2001 crash of so many "paradigm-shifting" business models, the legacy of poor Thomas Kuhn might be cut some slack.

But no...

From a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Creating buzz, one peer at a time" --

In an age when the college demographic is no longer easily reached by television, radio or newspapers -- as TiVo, satellite radio, iPods and the Internet crowd out the traditional advertising venues -- a microindustry of campus marketing has emerged. Niche firms have sprung up to act as recruiters of students, who then market products on campus for companies such as Microsoft, JetBlue Airways, The Cartoon Network and Victoria's Secret.

"There is a paradigm shift in the way that corporations are marketing to college students," said Matt Britton, a managing partner of Mr. Youth, a New York-based firm that specializes in college student marketing. "The student ambassador tactic embraces all the elements that corporations find most effective: It's peer-to-peer, it's word of mouth, it's flexible and it breaks through the clutter of other media. For all that, it's growing very quickly."

By the estimate of leading youth marketing firms, tens of thousands of students work as campus ambassadors nationwide.