There is a curious $150,000 church advertising campaign on in Canberra at the moment. With the tag line ‘I’m not into religion, but I reckon a lot of what Jesus taught is pretty amazing’, it really makes me feel as if the institutional church knows they are up against the wall. Some of the banners outside the participating churches give the main impression of the face of a pretty girl, and the word ‘Jesus’. I always look for the exclamation mark…
I propose they would have more success with a mash-up of our controversial tourist ads, which have been almost banned in Britain (because of the ‘bloody’), in Canada (because of the beer – huh?), and now in the US (because of the ‘bloody’ and the ‘hell’ disturb the ‘family values’ mob):
- We’ve brought you a wine (picture of chalice filled with wine)
- And we’ve had the camels shampooed (3 wise men and camels)
- We’ve saved you a spot on the pews (Lara Bingle in bikini smiles invitingly from pew)
- And we’ve got the rockspiders out of the pulpit (squeaky clean bishop in pulpit – perhaps a woman?)
- We’ve got the ghouls off the gravestones (ghosts exiting manicured graveyard)
- And Peter is on his way down to open the front gate (St Peter at Pearly Gates)
- The angel’s waiting (Gabriel)
- And supper’s about to be served (Last Supper)
- We’ve turned on The Light (flooding rays of holy light)
- And we’ve been rehearsing for over 40,000 years (?) (celestial choir)
- So where the bloody hell are you? (Lara again)
I’m fighting the temptation of making it into a flash movie myself, so if you want to do it and save me the trouble, go to it!
Updated links 2015
