Comments on: UCC to run ad in NY Times tomorrow

By: Adam Tierney-Eliot

Adam Tierney-Eliot — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:43:04 +0000

For what its worth, my Dad said he liked the ad and couldn’t put his finger on why. Of course, my mom is UCC minister, I am UUA/UCC, and Dad is big Obama supporter. Its like winning your home game…

By: Scott Wells

Scott Wells — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:35:49 +0000

I will assume Dan is right on all counts. God knows I am attracted to/horrified by some of the local ads on spot cable right now. Er, but wait. No. The UCC may have got that message (and believe it), but I still the ads are bit too eager and too wordy by half. (A malady Unitarian Universalists share, alas.)

So I’d suspect the best outcome is “this is a necessary response to those that don’t know us, and a way of reassuring our own.” Good use of the money, either way.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:09:28 +0000

Huh. I liked the UCC ad. As someone who has done a little sales and marketing, ads are supposed to be conservative, and supposed to reach a wide audience — mentioning the Mayflower seems right on target to me, as did mentioning Declaration of Independence, and Armistad. From a marketing perspective, I would expect the average reader to take about two seconds scanning the ad, and to get approximately the following out of the ad:

“UCC, the Trinity Church Jeremiah Wright whackos … huh, Mayflower … Armistad, yeah, good movie … God … Jesus Christ … ” … at which point the average reader will move on to the next shiny thing, but somewhere in their reptilian brain is the equation “UCC = Mayflower = Christian.”

Remember, you’re not supposed to like ads and marketing. You are supposed to be mildly annoyed by them. That way you pay attention to them, and the content soaks into your reptilian brain while your logical brain is telling itself what a crappy piece of marketing this is. And yeah, I do know what I’m talking about (a little), I was high gross and high net in my department when I did sales. But come to think of it, I hope you completely don’t believe me because then I can use my sales/marketing wiles on you next time I see you (mwahh-ha-ha).

By: Adam Tierney-Eliot

Adam Tierney-Eliot — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:40:59 +0000

It has been challenging. There are lots of questions and lots of indignation at least in my church. We seem like such nice people, after all. What a shock to find out out otherwise! It makes one wonder what other people think we actually do on Sunday morning…

I didn’t think the NYT ad was all that hot either, but man, I missed Hans (which is something of a surprise). Perhaps I’m getting nostalgic for the days when folks got us confused with the Church of Christ and worried about swearing in front our pastors…

By: Shelby Meyerhoff

Shelby Meyerhoff — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:56:42 +0000

Very interesting. Thanks for the links.