Check out what Coca Cola Headquarters in Atlanta is looking like these days to celebrate their 125th Anniversary. They have made their entire building in essence a 3D canvas for video. Amazing
[tentblogger-youtube KFshiUe_Mmw]
The Super Bowl is not only the biggest stage for American football, but almost as importantly, it is the biggest stage in the advertising and marketing industry. ?Groups spend millions and millions of dollars to get people’s attention. ?Check out this creative ad, “Casket,” for the Super Bowl made by Mosaic Church in LA. ?Erwin McManus is the pastor of this very innovative church that has a ton of members that are a part of the TV and film industry in LA.
?Casket? was inspired by one of our team member?s funeral experience where his deceased grandfather requested to be buried with a beer and cigarettes. ?Casket? is a commercial where a guy stages his own funeral just to munch Doritos and watch football undisturbed ? in a casket. But of course, things don?t go as planned. (from vote for casket.com)
There is a good AP article explaining the reasoning behind their lighthearted spoof.
“We’re not trying to use Doritos to propagate a message, but I think we want people to know that we have a sense of humor, that it’s OK to laugh,” McManus said. “So much of what comes out of the faith community seems so dour and somber and we want to say, ‘Hey, we’re real people. You can be a person of faith and really enjoy life and laugh.”
Phil Cooke, a Christian producer, filmmaker and author says this about the commercial.
“Nobody’s going to fall on their knees and accept Jesus as a result of this spot. But advertisers on Madison Avenue spend millions on a Super Bowl spot because they know it influences people,” said Cooke, the producer. “It might not get someone converted, but I think it will get someone to say, ‘Maybe there is something I ought to investigate.'”
What do you think? ?How do you like the “soft” sell approach to faith?
LA megachurch hopes to win Super Bowl ad contest – Yahoo! News.
As I mentioned earlier, we went to the Welcome and Information Center for Panama City Beach this morning to get. . . um, information . . . about what there is to do here in Panama City Beach. Of course there are those little brochure kiosks everywhere to try to get you into their place of business. But we wanted to hear an “insider’s view” of the attractions. Someone who has a “been there, done that, DIDN’T buy the T-shirt” (or vice versa) kind of informational experience. But it simply isn’t going to happen! Not today anyway!
Here’s a little tip for the city of Panama City Beach. See if you can’t spring for a couple of bucks to send the help to some of the excursions–ANY of the excursions. Basically, the lady(ies) who helped us had not been to ANY of the tours or whatnot in the town. “They were too busy working to have time to go on those things.” What!?! Isn’t that your job to know what tours are good and what tours stink?? Shouldn’t you be able to steer people clear of spare tours and tourist traps?? Seriously, you can be more help than “I think there are some brochures over there on that kind of stuff!”
For what it’s worth, I think that we in the church are a lot like that aren’t we? We are representing something that many of us aren’t really that enthused about, let alone even experienced!! To put it the way Rob Bell puts it, “we aren’t ‘smokin’ what we’re sellin’.” You can’t talk about an experience with Jesus until you have come face to face with Him and He comes in and changes your life. This isn’t simply something that you “do” . . . this Christianity thing! It is your “LIFE!” Every time someone comes into one of our environments (churches), people ought to get an “insider’s” view of the Gospel–EVERY TIME! They shouldn’t just hope they “get the good one [volunteer]” or not get the “guy having a bad day, ur, life.” Think about the consequences of not having an insider’s view of the Gospel at your church. Who is there because they had an insider’s, “I once was blind, but not I see” kind of person helping them to understand this crazy thing called the Gospel and the Church? Is someone there because you are “smokin’ what you’re sellin’?” Or are they turned away unsatisfied because you are no better than a bunch of brochures sitting all neatly in a row–lot’s of information, but no passion of an insider’s perspective.
I got the book Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles at our garage sale at
church this weekend. It is all about customer service. One of the ideas in the book is that “satisfied customers are not enough.” Basically, you don’t want people to be satisfied, but to be more than satisfied–to be “raving fans” for your organization.
It seems that true customer service is really a thing of the past. Case in point is our internet service provider(s) (both our current and future ISPs). Our internet access has been really pretty poor for quite some time, but we always got the “better check your equipment on your end” line when you call for help. Come to find out, the service we had been charged for was literally impossible for them to provide as we are too far away from the “central hub.” In getting down to the bottom of the problem, a guy in St. Louis was totally dumbfounded that they “sold” us the service. He said we need to call and get a refund on the several years of bad service. Of course I called to get the refund to no avail. Nobody ever wants to admit that there might be a problem that needs to be fixed. I have really been working on this in my own life lately, so I guess I am more sensitive to it.
So we decided we needed to make a change in services. The second company couldn’t make it until Monday “morning.” The guy shows up at about 12:30 p.m. to hook it up, but needs another guy to help him install it, so he said he would be back in the morning. Of course morning comes and goes . . . as does the afternoon. Calling the office is useless as they are scheduled to come “any time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.” Who else could get away with that big of window of time than the cable company? Plus the irony of a “communications company” that can’t (or won’t) simply pick up the phone and call us to let us know they are stuck at another call, need to move the appointment, etc. Customer service matters! It really matters in ministry too! Because eternity hangs in the balance!
Makes me think of our website hosting company, but don’t get me started on that rant!
We really had a good day yesterday.? It was good to get back to preaching after Chris did such a great job last week starting this series off with a great message.? I preached on “The Man.”? Jesus is the most loved and hated man in history.? There are so many differing opinions about Jesus from believer and non-believer alike.? I felt like that we need to take an in depth look at this man Jesus.? We are continuing some of the Scriptures that we didn’t get to on the devotional blog.? You will want to check them out.? Read more
Jenny, Taylor, Tucker and I had the privilege of going to North Point Church yesterday! We decided on Saturday night that we would go because it was a different denomination than ours, we have heard good things, but really the deciding factor was the noon service! Read more