Hype
06/02/12 05:16
OK The Super Bowl is over for another year. Frankly, it is OK by me. I’m not that much of a football fan. We don’t own a big screen TV and we don’t seem to want one. We sort of pay attention to the teams and I watched a few playoff games. But I am in no way a fan and not the target demographic for the advertisers.
The truth is, however, that we live our lives in the midst of our culture. As much as we want to be shapers of culture, it is silly to think that we are not shaped by the culture. If you don’t believe me, you should have been in our church yesterday. Once again, as we have been doing for a dozen years, we made significant mention of the Super Bowl in our worship service. It makes sense to do so. The Souper Bowl of Caring is a way to take the spirit of the day an turn it into an opportunity to make a significant opportunity to combat hunger in our community and around the world. With relatively small effort, the youth raised hundreds of dollars and gathered pounds of healthy food to benefit local charities.
Here is the statistic that bothers me. Last year, our congregation was the second largest donor to Church Response, the local organization that works to give assistance to hungry and needy families in our community. I’m proud of our church and of our efforts to make a difference. I am bothered that a congregation that is less than a fourth the size of the biggest congregations in town is the number 2 donor. Where are the big churches when it comes to a combined effort to serve the hungry and needy people of our community?
Once again, I come to the conclusion that bigger isn’t always better. At least I am convinced that God isn’t calling us to grow by imitating the bigger churches. We are called to be faithful in service. Once again, “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20:6) May we become servants.
This means that we will have to get used to operating with a lot less attention. In the eyes of the world, what we are doing is pretty small potatoes. 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising is equal to about ten years of operation for our entire church.
From time to time, members of our congregation ask me why we don’t do more advertising. They come to me with a genuine belief that we should have better public relations.
I really don’t know much about advertising. I am not good at public relations. And part of the reason is that these are not important to me. I’ve never been good at blowing my own horn. What seems to work in Super Bowl advertising doesn’t appeal to me at all. I know that the ads of the Super Bowl receive a lot of attention. Stories about the ads are as common as stories about the game in news reporting. This year all of the ads were released in advance, so there were no surprises and, quite frankly, I didn’t watch too many of them.
I don’t make purchase decisions based on who is shown in his or her underwear or swimming suit. Celebrities don’t make that much of an impression on me, either. The idea of Clint Eastwood staring in a 2-minute commercial for Chrysler sounded intriguing to me, but I didn’t watch the half time of the game and by the time I got around to looking up the ad on YouTube, it had been pulled due to a copyright dispute between YouTube and NFL Properties. The basic thrust of the commercial is that despite the recession, the game isn’t over and that America and American manufacturing are ready to stay in the game. Chrysler was said to have tried to keep the commercial under wraps before the game, but You Tube reported more than 21 million views before it pulled the ad.
I could care less if Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld want to compete for a car. I’m pretty sure if those two are fighting over it, it would be something I cannot afford.
Quite frankly, the ads I saw weren’t that innovative. I don’t watch much TV and I know the E-trade baby and Careerbuilder.com chimps are relics of many past Super Bowls. There was a Honda ad that was a spin off of the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I’ve already seen that movie.
The ads probably didn’t influence any of my purchase decisions. Then again, I’m not very typical.
To me the whole phenomenon is hype. That is it is excessive. The publicity is excessive, the claims made by the promoters are extravagant, there are more than a few exaggerated takes on the real world.
In the face of all of the hype, I think a fair amount of countercultural thinking is warranted. I have nothing against sports, but the game really wasn’t the most important thing going on yesterday. Ask any person living in the Syrian city of Homs, in which anti-government activists are being attacked with heavy artillery. Ask the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are trying to work out an interim unity government as they prepare for elections. Ask the families of the people, including women and children who are trapped in the collapse of a factory building in Lahore, Pakistan. Ask the families who have had to leave their homes as floods inundate Queensland, Australia, for the second year in a row.
Our culture wants us to believe that the game was the biggest thing going on yesterday. I was big. It might not have been the most important. As a lesson for churches, I think, it is that we aren’t called to imitate. We can be more efficient and less extravagant with God’s gifts. We can be more truthful and less exaggerated with the words we use. We can be more compassionate and less combative in relationship to other people.
For now, I’m glad we aren’t in the hype business. For what it is worth, I hope we stay out of it.
The truth is, however, that we live our lives in the midst of our culture. As much as we want to be shapers of culture, it is silly to think that we are not shaped by the culture. If you don’t believe me, you should have been in our church yesterday. Once again, as we have been doing for a dozen years, we made significant mention of the Super Bowl in our worship service. It makes sense to do so. The Souper Bowl of Caring is a way to take the spirit of the day an turn it into an opportunity to make a significant opportunity to combat hunger in our community and around the world. With relatively small effort, the youth raised hundreds of dollars and gathered pounds of healthy food to benefit local charities.
Here is the statistic that bothers me. Last year, our congregation was the second largest donor to Church Response, the local organization that works to give assistance to hungry and needy families in our community. I’m proud of our church and of our efforts to make a difference. I am bothered that a congregation that is less than a fourth the size of the biggest congregations in town is the number 2 donor. Where are the big churches when it comes to a combined effort to serve the hungry and needy people of our community?
Once again, I come to the conclusion that bigger isn’t always better. At least I am convinced that God isn’t calling us to grow by imitating the bigger churches. We are called to be faithful in service. Once again, “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20:6) May we become servants.
This means that we will have to get used to operating with a lot less attention. In the eyes of the world, what we are doing is pretty small potatoes. 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising is equal to about ten years of operation for our entire church.
From time to time, members of our congregation ask me why we don’t do more advertising. They come to me with a genuine belief that we should have better public relations.
I really don’t know much about advertising. I am not good at public relations. And part of the reason is that these are not important to me. I’ve never been good at blowing my own horn. What seems to work in Super Bowl advertising doesn’t appeal to me at all. I know that the ads of the Super Bowl receive a lot of attention. Stories about the ads are as common as stories about the game in news reporting. This year all of the ads were released in advance, so there were no surprises and, quite frankly, I didn’t watch too many of them.
I don’t make purchase decisions based on who is shown in his or her underwear or swimming suit. Celebrities don’t make that much of an impression on me, either. The idea of Clint Eastwood staring in a 2-minute commercial for Chrysler sounded intriguing to me, but I didn’t watch the half time of the game and by the time I got around to looking up the ad on YouTube, it had been pulled due to a copyright dispute between YouTube and NFL Properties. The basic thrust of the commercial is that despite the recession, the game isn’t over and that America and American manufacturing are ready to stay in the game. Chrysler was said to have tried to keep the commercial under wraps before the game, but You Tube reported more than 21 million views before it pulled the ad.
I could care less if Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld want to compete for a car. I’m pretty sure if those two are fighting over it, it would be something I cannot afford.
Quite frankly, the ads I saw weren’t that innovative. I don’t watch much TV and I know the E-trade baby and Careerbuilder.com chimps are relics of many past Super Bowls. There was a Honda ad that was a spin off of the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I’ve already seen that movie.
The ads probably didn’t influence any of my purchase decisions. Then again, I’m not very typical.
To me the whole phenomenon is hype. That is it is excessive. The publicity is excessive, the claims made by the promoters are extravagant, there are more than a few exaggerated takes on the real world.
In the face of all of the hype, I think a fair amount of countercultural thinking is warranted. I have nothing against sports, but the game really wasn’t the most important thing going on yesterday. Ask any person living in the Syrian city of Homs, in which anti-government activists are being attacked with heavy artillery. Ask the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are trying to work out an interim unity government as they prepare for elections. Ask the families of the people, including women and children who are trapped in the collapse of a factory building in Lahore, Pakistan. Ask the families who have had to leave their homes as floods inundate Queensland, Australia, for the second year in a row.
Our culture wants us to believe that the game was the biggest thing going on yesterday. I was big. It might not have been the most important. As a lesson for churches, I think, it is that we aren’t called to imitate. We can be more efficient and less extravagant with God’s gifts. We can be more truthful and less exaggerated with the words we use. We can be more compassionate and less combative in relationship to other people.
For now, I’m glad we aren’t in the hype business. For what it is worth, I hope we stay out of it.