Can Advertising and Faith Coexist?
16Sep2005 Filed under: Marketing, Branding, Advertising, Society, Spirituality, Church Author: DUST!NAdvertising and the Christian faith make strange bedfellows.
My wife and I are currently going through a small group study by Crown Financial Ministries. The study is intended to help families apply biblical principals to their money management. One of the points they make is that the more TV you watch, the more catalogs you peruse, then the more money you spend. Often needlessly. Honestly, that’s a hard pill for someone in marketing to swallow. How do I reconcile that? Partly in my choice of clientele and partly with honesty. Still, it seems like a fine line to walk.
Additionally, I recently read a bbc.com article detailing how more churches and ministries are using advertising to draw attendance. I have no problem with this in practice. And some of the ads are actually pretty good. What I am concerned about is churches and ministries RELYING on advertising as many businesses do. What if churches become more concerned with making sure their advertising is incredible than seeing that their ministry is effective? I also worry that while attempting to be clever, ministries may not be authentic in their advertising.
Advertising and faith. It’s like having dinner with Steve Jobs and Billy Graham. I respect both, but don’t know how they’d relate with each other… or how I’d fit in the middle.
3 Responses to “Can Advertising and Faith Coexist?”
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'Casual Fridays' is about what happens when work is less about appearances and more about the humanity within. How do we strip away office politics, corporate jargon and red tape? Wouldn't we rather clothe ourselves in creativity, ideas and productivity? It's an ideal at least worth chasing.
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Leigh
September 19th, 2005 at 9:37 am
It is somewhat hard to reconcile yourself to the ideas presented in something like Crown’s program — while remaining positive about our lines of work… Our job is to create and perpetuate need (or desire), in the end. We’d be in a real pickle if all our customers were content just the way they are.
With regard to church marketing - I agree with your statement regarding churches and ministries RELYING on advertising, and how - in attempting to be clever - they may not be authentic. It would seem that word-of-mouth would be the best indication of a truly customer-centric church. That is, a church that meets the needs of the local community, takes care of people, etc.
On the subject of church marketing, I wrote an article ( http://livepath.blogspot.com/2005/08/ice-cream-you-scream.html ) about church here that’s doing ome really unusual stuff to market themselves. They don’t necessarily view it as marketing per-se. They are committed to finding unique ways to connect to the community. While you’re in the article, be sure to check out the Baby Got Book video… (hysterical) which was a video produced for one of the sermons. The blog for the church ice cream truck also has a few funny stories. The church’s web site is atrocious - something they ought to fix, IMHO…
Leigh
Robert
September 26th, 2005 at 11:03 pm
Interesting points. I’m always tickled by the UMC ads about open hearts and open doors. (As long as you subscribe to their ideas.)
Keep up the good work.