PeaceBang
The manic mind of the minister -- Auntie Mame Meets Cotton Mather. Blogging about Unitarian Universalism, UU Christian spiritual practice, occasional cultural and political ravings, and the inner life of ministry. PeaceBang is the alter ego of a small town pastor serving an historic New England Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Is God Keeping You From Liking This Ad Campaign?
October 8, 2007 on 6:52 pm | In Unitarian Universalism |Just kidding. Couldn’t resist.
I saw the “Is God Keeping You From Going to Church” UUA ad in Time magazine today (courtesy of a parishioner who clipped it for me) and really liked it a lot. It’s elegant and provocative and strikes just the right chord.
But then I saw this on YouTube and extremely much disliked it (<— trying not to say “hate”). It looks like some weird Richard Linklater production and I’m not sure what demographic finds jumpy purple cartoon graphics appealing, but it ain’t fat, forty-something East Coast liberal Christian Witchy Transcendentalists of Jewish heritage. A shame, ’cause the distracting, hipper-than-thou visuals almost ruin the whole thing for me, and there are some very sincere people in that ad saying lovely things. (Go, Shana!) Why’d they have to make them into animated people? I think that was seriously ill-advised. Real people go to churches, not cartoons.
Isn’t it weird that the same message in two different media can evoke such different reactions?
So I’m sitting her patting my nice little TIME ad on the head. Nice ad, niiiice ad.
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I don’t know if it will help you to know that the YouTube ad was developed for broadcast on Comedy Central in the San Francisco Bay Area during The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but it was!
Comment by Philocrites — October 8, 2007 #
You can watch the same very sincere people saying the same lovely things without the funky graphics if you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezp1W2HKlU where you’ll find a 10 minute video designed to introduce newcomers to Unitarian Universalism. The short clips from the Comedy Central ad are also included in this longer video.
Comment by Sue — October 8, 2007 #
I like the video material overall, much more than the print material (which I’m having visceral reactions over). The short version was perplexing me, however, and I’m glad to know it wasn’t just me. I thought my monitor was having issues.
Comment by Obijuan — October 8, 2007 #
I should add that we’re thinking of putting the DVDs of the 10 minute video into our visitor packet here in Top Secret City.
Comment by Obijuan — October 8, 2007 #
I still think that until UUism has a fairly solid, core spiritual & theological message, this kind of ad campaign isn’t going to “pay off.” I am reminded of the Religious Science church I visited for a while, which filled a large auditorium twice a Sunday, with the most diverse congregation I have ever seen (old, young, gay, straight, black, white, men, women, children, insert category here). These folks have got it down-a message that is spiritually nurturing, liberal, theistic, broad, socially engaging, and very popular. There are what amount to statements of faith recited communally, but the minister is clear that if yo don’t want to say it, then don’t. Take what you find useful from the tradition, don’t feel forced to conform.
Now I don’t buy into the Science of Mind, but I will say that my experiences in this church were pretty good over all. http://slc-atlanta.org/
Comment by NDM — October 9, 2007 #