How Do You Sell ... Religion?

Each week, the ABC's Gruen Transfer program takes a look at advertising - what works, what doesn't, and why. Recently, they discussed the 'product category' of religion.



My highlights came from Todd Sampson (on the Jesus ad):

They had done a lot of research and basically the finding was "Church is bad, Jesus is cool". So they focussed on their strength, which is Jesus. But the advertising certainly won't solve the problem that brand Christianity has ... You can paint the advertising and make that look really good. If the experience is not very good, it's not going to work ... The advertising goes part of the way but it certainly doesn't go all the way.

and from Jeremy Nicholas:

Why it doesn't work is 'cause the whole thing is completely and utterly plastic ... the whole thing just eeks of out-of-touchness and then it has no relevance ... and so it does more damage than good

I do sometimes wonder what it says about how well we are following Jesus, when research says that "Jesus is cool - Church is bad". And why does faith-related broadcasting come across as fake, plastic and irrelevant? Is it that faith is something best shared person-to-person, rather than via mass delivery?