Church as Product?
It can be fun as an expat in this internet age to listen to local news radio stations to get a taste of what is going on “back home.” Then again, you have to put up with the radio advertisements that seem to be getting stupider every year that goes by.
One particular station really takes the cake for idiotic advertising—not silly, but really dumb and annoyingly bad.
For instance, one spot opens with a series of Either\Or questions:
“Do you want x or y? A or b? Y or z? If you come to our store, the answer to all of these questions is… Yes!”
What?
Another spot opens something like this:
“This commercial is for all of you who have had damage to your home. For the rest of you, thank your lucky stars that you don’t have a mess to clean up. For that job, professionally done, belongs to…”
So is the commercial for people with damage, or without? And are we supposed to be thankful that we don’t have a mess, or that we don’t have to use that company? Are they bad at what they do or something?
Perhaps the worst, however, and for a more serious reason, is the local big Baptist church. The church spot is obviously aimed at people who are already Christians, which is probably good since radio advertisements are not the best way for the church to accomplish the task of reaching the lost. But that begs the question: are they hoping to get “Christians” from other congregations? Another problem is the fact that the Gospel is never presented. The message of the spot is that this particular church is “a church you can believe in.” Talk about taking the materialization\ church as a consumer product problem to the extreme!
One particular station really takes the cake for idiotic advertising—not silly, but really dumb and annoyingly bad.
For instance, one spot opens with a series of Either\Or questions:
“Do you want x or y? A or b? Y or z? If you come to our store, the answer to all of these questions is… Yes!”
What?
Another spot opens something like this:
“This commercial is for all of you who have had damage to your home. For the rest of you, thank your lucky stars that you don’t have a mess to clean up. For that job, professionally done, belongs to…”
So is the commercial for people with damage, or without? And are we supposed to be thankful that we don’t have a mess, or that we don’t have to use that company? Are they bad at what they do or something?
Perhaps the worst, however, and for a more serious reason, is the local big Baptist church. The church spot is obviously aimed at people who are already Christians, which is probably good since radio advertisements are not the best way for the church to accomplish the task of reaching the lost. But that begs the question: are they hoping to get “Christians” from other congregations? Another problem is the fact that the Gospel is never presented. The message of the spot is that this particular church is “a church you can believe in.” Talk about taking the materialization\ church as a consumer product problem to the extreme!
Good post.
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