tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post5266066147692779901..comments2023-10-30T05:38:45.028-07:00Comments on The Infusion: A Postcard Postmortem PostLKThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05791517233920008067noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post-18889529805586849762013-09-24T01:59:33.682-07:002013-09-24T01:59:33.682-07:00The materials in question took the form of slogans...The materials in question took the form of slogans that could be printed off as postcards. As noted by Adam Trambley and others, these materials were problematic. <a href="http://postcard-plus.com" rel="nofollow">postcard app</a>albina N murohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08139646674252673476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post-351072399505187032013-08-21T09:10:11.486-07:002013-08-21T09:10:11.486-07:00Interesting observation. It's true that the o...Interesting observation. It's true that the original ad campaign, which my friend read in her campus paper, worked particularly well for the two of us when we were in college and graduate school and brought both of us to active engagement in a series of campus chaplaincies as a result. Today's college and university students, even if they were interested in exactly the same message in content, style, and tone, would be much more likely to come across any such message on Facebook or Twitter or some other social media that I myself have probably never even heard of.<br /><br />I also think that both my friend and I were more in the situation of people who had grown up in church and moved away than in what I have gathered is the more common current situation of students and other young adults who have grown up without any particular church experience of their own at all.<br /><br />All of this makes me wonder if there are ways of designing ad campaigns that can speak to different kinds of audiences together or separately. How can we attract both people with no religious training or experience at all and people with very different kinds of Christian or other religious training or experience? How can we attract old and young, rich and poor, English speakers, Spanish speakers, and other speakers, all the vast diversity of people all across the country?<br /><br />Quite aside from the form of delivery, it seems unlikely that any single ad campaign can do the trick. <br /><br />Thinking about content: What are the core concepts around which we might organize multiple messages for all these different audiences? How do we spread the gospel to all different kinds of people in ways that are both true to God and, if we think the Episcopal church is the best way of meeting God, distinctive to the Episcopal Church as well? <br /><br />Thinking about tone: What makes us "like us" rather than simply "not like them"? Can we build up what we are without putting down what others are not?<br /><br />These are the kinds of questions that I ask myself as I prepare my classes for Adult Formation every year. I find them hard enough to answer for people who have already chosen the Episcopal Church, but I think they must be even more important questions if we are going to attract people who are not here yet.<br /><br />Thank you for opening the space to ask about all of these things.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post-19949142039384235792013-08-20T19:03:34.504-07:002013-08-20T19:03:34.504-07:00Actually, I wonder if this may be one of the issue...Actually, I wonder if this may be one of the issues: the church is trying to replicate its marketing campaign from the '80's, both in tone and in delivery. <br /><br />It was a great campaign. And I love the tone those materials hit. But that was back when radio, television, and print campaigns were the only game in town. It doesn't seem like they've moved on from there.LKThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05791517233920008067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post-26317017338502408382013-08-19T11:25:36.605-07:002013-08-19T11:25:36.605-07:00Additional slogans from the same campaign:
"...Additional slogans from the same campaign:<br /><br />"If you think church is only for families, remember Jesus was single."<br /><br />I hadn't actually realized how deeply I'd internalized this one until last year's debate about whether or not Jesus was married.<br /><br />And, over an image of the whole round orb of the planet Earth taken from outer space:<br /><br />"Without God, it's just a vicious circle."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post-463797529415856282013-08-19T11:19:13.287-07:002013-08-19T11:19:13.287-07:00I hadn't heard anything about the latest ad ca...I hadn't heard anything about the latest ad campaign, but your story reminds me of an older ad campaign that I absolutely loved some thirty years ago, one that brought a friend of mine to church for the first time in a long time and turned me on to a congregation that I came to love, love, love.<br /><br />Ironically, the best website I have found for it now actually advertises the Minnesota ad agency that put it together, not the Episcopal church itself:<br /><br />https://www.fallon.com/project/the-episcopal-church/.<br /><br />Our favorite slogan at the time, though not one the agency is featuring now, was "Jesus Christ. He came to take away your sins, not your mind."<br /><br />As I look at that slogan and think about that ad again now, I find that I am not so enthusiastic about the potential implication that other denominations are necessarily anti-intellectual - but I also find that I am more grateful than ever before for the acknowledgement that even a church full of smart talkers and tough critical thinkers is still willing to talk about sin and salvation. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5044820951794078204.post-44557220041652818712013-08-18T21:19:47.042-07:002013-08-18T21:19:47.042-07:00All threenod those statements struck me as snarky ...All threenod those statements struck me as snarky and sarcastic. I was totally turned off by each and every one of them. Jan t Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com