Branding Faith by Phil Cooke

BRANDING FAITH:

Living in a Media Driven Culture

by

Phil Cooke

Dr. Phil Cooke is the founder of Cooke Pictures, and also a producer, consultant, strategist, and acclaimed media activist. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN. His work has also been profiled in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Visit Phil online at: www.philcooke.com.

LIVING IN A MEDIA DRIVEN CULTURE

"Entertainment - not autos, not steel, not financial services - is fast becoming the driving wheel of the new world economy."

-- Michael J. Wolf, The Entertainment Economy

I ONCE HEARD IT SAID THAT if an alien from another planet were to examine the United States and write an evaluation of our religious habits, he would probably conclude that Oprah is America's pastor, the vestments of the twenty-first century church are manufactured by Nike, the communion table is poured by a barista from Starbucks, and in the children's department, a clown from McDonald's is certainly more widely recognized than Jesus of Nazareth. Today, people confess their sins on daytime television, purge their guilt by donating to TV evangelists, and seek redemption through the story arc in an action movie.

This information isn't anything new. At a typical religious conference today, people will debate the collapse of moral values, discuss the impact of living in an entertainment culture, or argue whether or not we should protest, boycott, or engage.

Many blame the widening gap between the Church and state; others point to the growing permissiveness of society; and still others fault explicit sex and violence on television. No matter how you look at it, culture today is far more coarse, ragged, and uncertain than it was a generation ago.

As people have since the beginning of time, when society feels uncertain, they look for spiritual answers. Religious belief comforts us during times of difficulty. It provides a moral bearing and imparts meaning and purpose that materialism simply can't provide.

During the last few years, there has been a trend in advertising and marketing to explore the connections between religion and branding. As advertisers search for more and more effective ways to connect products with consumers, they've stumbled upon the power of "meaning." If you can link a product to a consumer's personal identity, the connection becomes far stronger and the relationship sticks for a much longer period of time.

That's no surprise to the Church, which has known its impact for thousands of years. The Bible itself says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). As a young preacher's kid growing up in the South, I heard my father preach that if you could get young people into church as children, the chances were far higher that they would continue that relationship for the rest of their lives.

Today, cell phone companies, fashion designers, food producers, television networks, and more, focus specifically on children in order to make them brand conscious for life. We call them "early adopters."

A BRAND STAYS FOREVER

Branding is about identity. Even in the nuclear age, there isn't a more powerful force on earth. "Identity politics" is changing the political scene, as gays, feminists and ethnic groups all want a place at the table. Wars are fought over cultural identity, and seemingly normal people commit horrific crimes simply to save face. As I write this, a highly-regarded astronaut has just driven at high speed from Texas to Florida, allegedly wearing a diaper so that she wouldn't have to make a restroom stop - all to confront a woman she believed was competing for her boyfriend. When she was arrested, the police found kidnapping tools, such as rope and duct tape, in her car. Her career is over; she has been humiliated in the press, and years of study, training and preparation have gone down the drain - all because of jealousy and the embarrassment of potentially losing her astronaut boyfriend to another woman.

In Los Angeles, gang members are willing to die for other members , even though they barely know them. Gang identity on the streets is so strong that few things - sometimes not even family ties - can break that hold.

Who we are is an issue of identity, integrity and purpose, and we're willing to go to great lengths to keep that identity unique and strong.

"The faster globalism removes barriers, the faster people erect new ones. They create intimate worlds they can understand, and where they can somebody and feel as if they belong."

-- Marty Neumeister, The Brand Gap

It's natural that marketers should look to religion for inspiration. Religion is all about identity. Who am I? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? Besides the Bible, Rick Warren's book The Purpose-Driven Life has become one of the bestselling books of all time, because it touched a nerve about the most important question of our lives: How do I discover my purpose?

Many current thinkers have made the connection between branding and religion; but for the most part, they are looking from the outside in. For my purposes, I'm more interested in examining the question from the opposite direction. As I said, I'm a preacher's kid who grew up in the church during turbulent times in its history. During the fifties and sixties, the church was struggling for its identity amid the "death of God" theologians, the creeping liberalism of the Church and the ongoing culture wars. During that time, the Church changed dramatically as evangelicalism grew, Charismatic and Pentecostal churches exploded, and we experienced a major shift in church growth. Historic mainline denominations took sides on the issue of the "social gospel," and pastors debated the role of the supernatural and the legitimacy of Christ's miracles.

Out of that, a church emerged. populated by a younger generation that understood the power of the media, that was no content with what they perceived as propaganda and that searched for new methods to share an eternal message.

Having experienced those changes on the front lines of ministry, I became one of the new breed of believers in America. Rather than pursue my father's calling as a pastor, I finished a bachelor's degree in television and film studies, a master's in journalism, and a Ph.D. in theology. It took awhile, but my goal was to merge the historic Christian faith with more effective methods of sharing that story in a media-driven culture. Since that time, I've produced programs in more than 40 countries around the world, split my work between secular and religious programming, and consulted on media issues for some of the largest and most effective churches and nonprofit organizations in the world.

My goal was simple: How do we share a life-changing message with a culture that has lost interest? How can our message compete with the cacophony of voices in the media? How have churches and religious organizations become so irrelevant? Why is religious media so out of touch with the culture? If we are actually speaking truth with a capital T, why isn't anyone listening?

As a result, it wasn't long before I realized hat when it came to actually impacting the culture, the Church has a huge problem.

WE'VE LOST OUR STORY

From the earliest days of Hebrew storytellers sitting around campfires in the deserts of the Middle East, storytelling has been the core of every culture known to man.

From the parables of Jesus to the medieval mystery and passion plays, from the rise of the modern novel to motion pictures and television, storytelling has transcended government, culture and philosophy.

Every great civilization has creation stories and tales of great exploits that define their moral universe. The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Bible, Beowulf, and The Mahabharata are seminal stories that identify the personalities of various cultures and define their reason for being. The way stories are told has changed over the centuries, but the stories themselves have not lost their meaning or importance in people's lives.

There is no question that today the media has added an explosive element to the story. The statistics are unrelenting:

• 99 percent of households in America have at least one television.

• 66 percent have three or more sets.

• The average household has the television on 6 hours and 47 minutes per day.

• 70 percent of day-care centers use television in a typical day.

• By the time a child finishes elementary school, he has seen 8,000 murders on television.

• By age 18, he has seen more than 200,000 violent acts.

• 66 percent of Americans watch TV while they eat dinner.

As a result, the average family only spends 3.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with their children.

And that's just television.

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."

-- Comedian Groucho Marx

Today, more and more media platforms are competing with television for priority in our lives. Personal computers, digital music players, email, instant messaging, cell phones, and more, are slicing up our lives into digital compartments, and their power has become frightening.

The Los Angeles Times reported on a study that indicated one-third of Korean high school students make as many as 90 cell phone calls per day. The study also linked high cell phone use to rates of depression.

For those of you who slept through the revolution, today eBay has 168 million users worldwide; MySpace.com, by 2006, had registered 100 million users; there are 50 million blogs and 10 million people use CraigsList to search for classifieds. By the time you read this, those numbers will be significantly higher.

According to James Twitchell, professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida:

"Much of our shared knowledge about ourselves and our culture comes to us through a commercial process of storytelling called "branding." The process starts early. A marketing professor estimates that 10 percent of a two-year-old's nouns are brand names. And an English study estimates that one out of every four babies speaks a brand name as a first word."

This article isn't about the horrors of media, advertising, or entertainment....This article takes a different approach. The fact is that we're immersed in a media-driven culture. Our alarm goes off in the morning playing music from our favorite radio station; we get up and turn on the morning news to see what's happening in the world. We read the paper over breakfast. We listen to the car radio, music CD or a podcast on the way to work. We spend the day at our desk working by computer, periodically checking our email or stock prices on our PDA. We listen to the radio on the way home. We watch the evening news over dinner. We catch our favorite TV programs in prime time, then take a last peek at our email or check in online at eBay. Then we watch the "eye-witness news" right before we hit the sack, and maybe a few minutes of a popular late-night talk show.

Nearly every waking moment of our life intersects with the media in some way. And although that much exposure can't be a good thing, the momentum is strong. So while we can't stop it, we at least need to understand it.

When I was in college in the early seventies, studying media, I read Jerry Mander's classic book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. It was a fascinating book that was difficult to argue with. But its central premise - that we should completely eliminate television - was something that even I realized was never going to happen.

Since that time, thousands of studies have appeared linking violence, anti-social behavior, depression, lack of community, and more, to media use; but the truth is, we still watch the big game, we still check our email, and if you're so inclined, you can still find plenty of preachers on television.

I've been a producer and director for more than 30 years, most of that time in Hollywood. I own a production and consulting company that works with some of the largest and most effective churches and ministries in the country, helping them use media to make an impact in the culture. I'm also a founding partner in a secular television commercial company that produces spots for some of the largest companies in America. So I have a foot in both worlds - Christian media and secular media. Over the years, I've learned how to navigate our clients through the media minefields from both sides of the fence.

MORE THAN JUST A CONNECTION

I speak the language of Christianity, and I also speak the language of media. I don't believe there's simply a connection between branding and religion; I believe that religious experience is what the core of branding is all about.

As someone who has spent a lifetime sharing his faith with others, I have something to say about the influence that faith has on issues of personal identity, value and the search for meaning.

THE NEW MEDIA WORLD

Television was once called a vast wasteland, and it's hard to argue with that description. Even today, with multiple cable and satellite channels, religious and family channels, and other positive signs, there is still a lot of desert out there in the media landscape.

But recently the mass media has changed in a way that no one expected. In fact, I predict that our lifetime will be remembered as the era when mass media died. The truth is, it has been murdered. The suspects include digital music and video players, broadband Internet connections, blogging, and online entertainment.

Today media is about personalization. The mass audience isn't interested in the same thing anymore. And they want their media customized. On my digital music player, I have classic rock and roll, Frank Sinatra, Southern gospel, and even opera. I'm not interested in what radio stations think I need, because now I can customize my own play list.

So what does this mean for those of us interested in sharing our faith or selling products through the media?

It means it's time to wake up to the change.

In the church, pastors, Christian leaders and broadcasters always thought they had the answers to what their audience wanted and, more important, the audience would listen. Today the audience is in charge. In a virtually unlimited channel universe, the audience has more choices than ever before, and for us to justify their attention, we need to get on their wavelength.

After all, it doesn't matter if you have a great message if no one is listening.

The twenty-first century is changing everything about how to get your message to an audience. Yesterday it was about dumping the same message on the mass audience because they didn't have much choice. Today it's about making a connection - the kind of connection that not only makes them want to hear what you have to say but also makes them respond.

Understanding that connection is a critical step in finding your audience.

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