On near-atheists defending Christian marketing
Chris Doughty
Dock, in response to your letter “Red handed” in the January 30 edition of The Peak,
I’d like to defend a few of the things that you criticise about the “Everyone has a story” poster campaign. As a scientifically minded near-atheist, I don’t much care for being evangelised at by Christian groups, or any other religion for that matter, so I’m surprising myself by defending them, but I did feel that your letter was a little over the top.
Firstly, I notice that it’s an increasing trend for evangelical groups to disguise their activities with vague expressions like “questions about life” or “everyone has a story.” But there is nothing “sinister” about having a slogan that does not explicitly state what product you are advertising. Hell, it’s considered the pinnacle of advertising success to ONLY need a slogan, for example “I’m lovin’ it” or “Just do it.”
Secondly, advertisers make plenty of use of hyperbole, or exaggeration. When you see a poster that says “everyone,” it’s nearly impossible for that statement to be true. As consumers, the burden is on us to be smart enough to know that such generalised slogans only exist to get attention. They may not be strictly true, but they certainly aren’t as serious as deliberately misrepresenting a product or service.
If a slogan makes me curious enough to visit a website or buy a product, then the only guilt is my own, for being “influenced” by advertising. The groups behind “Everyone has a story” are simply advertising what they have to offer. If you’re not interested, you can ignore that message as part of the daily bombardment of information. If you think that advertising in general is a problem worthy of discussion, then great. But is it worth using half a page of The Peak to single out one advertiser for being Christian? Probably not.