If a product sold itself with the tag-line ‘experience the wonder’ – what would you imagine it to be?
- standing at the base of Niagra Falls?
- scenic helicopter flights over Antarctica?
- a dishwashing detergent that washes the dishes for you?!
‘Experience the wonder’ is a bold invitation.
And my guess is that you wouldn’t imagine this invitation to be to ‘experience the wonder’ of paying for flights using PayPal. But this is the campaign that Webjet has launched.
It comes complete with a television advertisement with grandiose music suitable for a Presidential address or the climactic scene of a Hollywood blockbuster.
It strikes me as an over-dramatic over-sell. Big claims should be saved for equally big (innovative/one-of-a-kind/life-changing) products, events or services.
The difference with Christianity, is that the message really is life-changing. Any Christian can testify to the life-changing message that the gospel of Jesus Christ is. However, I don’t think this opens the doors for us to use ‘experience the wonder’ in our church promotion. Sure, we could do:
- ‘Experience the wonder of carols this Christmas’
- ‘Experience the wonder of Jesus – sign up for a Simply Christianity course’
- ‘Experience the wonder of fair trade. Visit our fair trade market this weekend’
But in a world of big claims (where many aren’t half as big as they claim to be), I’m not sure how effective this kind of promotion would be. What do you think? Is it time to ‘experience the wonder’ in our promotion of Christian events?
