Home / Culture and Media / Featured / Lutherans Go Primetime
Author: Robert Francis
Move over Coke and Disney, you’ve got company during this year’s May sweeps! The Lutherans are going primetime, planning a series of TV ads to run in a variety of local and national markets. They start in late March and will air again during the middle of May. You can watch the two ads here: www.elca.org/tvads.
For as long as there has been a church, there have been church people thinking about how to reach out to those outside of their communities of faith. In one sense, most of the Bible’s New Testament is such a story, telling of the earliest growth of the new Christian movement, from town to town, family to family, person to person. Before the days of Constantine or imperial Christianity, there was a small, sometimes persecuted sect of peculiar folks who talked about loving one’s enemies, folks like peacemakers and the meek being blessed, and yes, something about how a fellow named Jesus from Palestine was at once both human and divine.
Fast-forward nearly two millennia, and we have the experiment in religion that is the United States of America. Historians and sociologists have termed America’s religious landscape a marketplace, thanks in part to founding documents that prohibited the establishment of a state church. For this and other reasons, much religious development in America has been unabashedly populist, catering to as many as will listen in a marketplace of competing religious ideas.
It is this “marketplace effect” that has created a unique place for “religious marketing” in America. Historian Randall Balmer calls America’s religious climate “always innovative and experimental,” ripe for the emergence of religious entrepreneurs and charismatic personalities in a religious atmosphere that is always open to new forms of old faith. In America, maybe more than other places, potential adherents find themselves in the role of consumers and prospective churches in the role of marketers.
The Lutheran aren’t the first denomination to put on the hats of ad executives. I know I’ve seen similar ads from the Methodists and the United Church of Christ, and I’m sure there are others. Even the American Humanist Association has gotten into the game, running the recent “Why Believe in God?” print ad campaign.
I would first like to ask, what do folks make of these ads? And maybe more fundamentally, what do we think about the fact that religion (or non-religion) is marketed at all? Is it good for churches and other groups to be marketing themselves in the same way as Coke and Pepsi? Is such an approach somehow at fundamental odds with the message itself, or is advertising a necessary feature of the American religious marketplace given our nation’s history of free (and often competing) religious exchange?
And what about the content of the ads? The Lutheran spots seem to focus on the ways the church is engaging in service in the world. To me, that seems like an appeal for relevance – “See, the church is a caring place doing good in the world! We aren’t just a bunch of judgmental hypocrites!” That is certainly a needed message, but what makes that distinct from a local United Way or social service agency? Maybe a full theology is a bit much to expect from a thirty-second spot, but a focus on service alone – while putting a different foot forward than tele-evangelists on cable – leaves some substance and particularity to be desired.
Finally, do these ads “work?” All the ads linked above seem well-done and creative, but will they move people to darken the door of a church? What it is that moves people who are not connected to communities of faith to consider such involvement? Or maybe the intent is simply to raise awareness of the Lutheran tradition (brand maintenance, if you will), or they could be to encourage current Lutherans to be more willing to share their own faith tradition with others. And regardless of what the stated intend is on behalf of the Lutherans, I wonder what people will think the intent is when the ELCA spends thirty seconds on the screen in between Geico and Toyota.
Many questions for thought. In the end, this postmodern moment might just say that the meaning and message are in the eyes of the beholder. What do you see?
Image courtesy of: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
April 6th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I think the ads a great ads in themselves, However I have yet to see one on TV. The ones that are running nationally are not on channels that i nor my friends watch.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Amy:
Your comment speaks volumes. I am reminded of the “free radio ads” that used to air with churches and non-profits the major customers. On out of the way stations at really odd times of day. Yet the claim was made about “using the modern medium of radio” for good effect. My guess about TV ads is that they’re aimed at a demographic that is already churched. Hardly a good use the ether, hmm?
And how’s DC young adult ministry going? I was in town last week and noticed the googobs of young adults — with their required happy dogs — around the East Market area. Seeing that made me happy that you and Bishop Richard chose to concentrate on this focus of ministry. Smart thinking! I hope you’re doing well. Even though you don’t watch ad-infested TV channels . . . .
Bob
April 7th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Thanks for this Bob! Good thoughts and questions.
For me there’s also the question that any ad today faces given our technology – will it be seen? I personally have Tivo and skip any and all ads I can – so if I have fast-forwarded through one of these ads, I wouldn’t know it.
April 10th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
The ads are focused within narrow markets, and are explcitly directed at church members, albeit there is some overlap. The ELCA website does a pretty good job of filling in the targeting thats going on, and the intended outcome of the ad run. The key for this to work, is local church followup, and I’m not so sure of how well that will play out. Thats the big question.
As far as marketing faith in general, thats a tough one. On the one hand, you have the conservative view of present the scriptures, and leave the rest up to God. On the other, its business concepts applied to the max. There is obviously a balance point somewhere between the two.
April 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Bob
Thanks for keeping up with the site! Good to hear from you!
RE: ads. Your questions regarding the target audience as well as the ensuing comments on the same issue would be interesting to pose to the ELCA communications team.
Finally, and most excitingly, DC is indeed full of young adults. I think it is one of the greatest parts of living here. We are getting started with Young Adult Ministry and are excited to see where it goes. Most of our work thus far has centered around connecting with young adults who are in DC but who are not part of a faith community. We look forward to continuing to connect with young adults, talk with them, learn from them, and share some of our own stories about the ways in which faith is making a difference in our own lives and in the lives of our communities.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I wonder if the ELCA invested in ads on places like Facebook…and set them up in open question form, would that elicit some space for open conversation with a broader audience?