Sunday, August 17, 2003
Selling a selfless Christian life to a materialistic society is a nightmare
AT FIRST glance a Biblical prophet and the designer of an advertisement might appear to have little in common.
One sought to communicate revelations of the divine; the other seeks to sell cornflakes and coffee.
But each person is communicating a message and trying to inspire a response from the man, or woman, in the street.
With fewer than eight out of a hundred people in Britain crawling out of bed on a Sunday morning to go to church, more and more Christians are looking to the world of advertising for ways to spread what they believe is very Good News.
There are two reasons for this. One is that members of any organisation are distressed when branches are forced to close, and the instinctive response to a decline in numbers is a recruitment drive.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the finest graphic designers of the day, men with names like Botticelli and Michelangelo, devoted their talents to turning doctrines and stories into spellbinding imagery.
Christianity+Renewal, a magazine devoted to detailing new ideas of how the church should fulfil its commission to reach the world, recently set marketing and communications agencies the challenge of creating a campaign which would capture the imagination of unchurched Britain.
The design team at Link ICA, which claims to be the nation's fastest-growing ad agency initially found the task daunting.
Joint creative director Jonathan Wilcock said, "We even asked ourselves whether this was the sort of thing that should be advertised. Compared to the usual brief of advertising soap, toothpaste, baked beans or holidays it was tricky."
None of the team were churchgoers, but, after talking to friends and family, inspiration finally struck and they seized upon the slogan "Get a life - Go to church."
Whether conscious of doing so or not, the designers at Link ICA were picking up on the notion of the "God-shaped hole" expressed by the 17th century French philosopher, Blaise Pascal. He argued that human beings are born on earth needing the divine in their lives; if it is not present, they become aware of something missing.
Their posters depict an ambulance, a hospital drip, and a doctor's suitcase, all emblazoned with a cross. The images suggest that deciding what one believes is a matter of life and death, and one that needs to be urgently resolved.
The second agency approached by Christianity+Renewal was Khameleon, who took a radically more relaxed approach to revamping Christendom.
Managing director Guy Lupton explained, "We don't think people like to be preached at, and we don't want traditional images like a picture of Jesus or a cross. We felt the key was to get people through the door of the church and let them make their own mind up."
Khameleon's images celebrate the community that can be found in a church, rather than attempt to present doctrinal creeds in poster form.
But, as Lupton was quick to point out, such a campaign will only be successful if the church matches the expectations the posters have raised.
He said, "We are selling a concept that applies to some churches. The advert aims to get a person to consider church, to try it out, and then it's down to the church to try and sell the concept. Advertising can raise awareness and create interest, but ultimately it can't make the sale."
Valerie Cordell of Wrexham's Creative Public Relations agreed that efforts to improve the image of churches could only go so far.
"At the end of the day the church is about worshipping God and living a godly life, so you can't get too bogged down in fetes and things."
Cardiff Journalism School Professor Ian Hargreaves, former editor of The Independent and the New Statesman and Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, points out that one of the greatest and simplest communicators in the history of humankind stands at the centre of the Gospels.
Just as Christ dispensed with jargon and instead explained his mission in parables and exhortations to "consider the lilies of the field." so Christians today should be able to make the Gospel explicable.
"I think you can strip down to simplicity most complexities and still have something which is worth saying," he said.
This is a challenge, he admits.
The Rev Roy Jenkins supports advertising but maintains it is no substitute for human interaction.
He said, "At the end of the day the most effective communication will always be on a one-to-one basis. The Christian message will be conveyed by people. That's on a personal basis and by people experiencing living communities of faith.
"The media can always be useful as a step towards that needed personal contact."
His greatest concern about what may happen when Christians embrace the power of Madison Avenue is that the message which ends up being sent to the world may bear little relation to the one preached by a man who suffered terribly and called on others to be prepared to sacrifice their own wealth and ambition. "This is an advertising agent's nightmare," he admitted.
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