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INDIAN ADVERTISING AND/FOR EVANGELISATION
The world of advertising is a very complex and fast developing world. Advertisements
are today an inescapable reality. Hate them or love them, one just cannot ignore
advertisements. No day passes without anyone being bombarded with atleast a dozen
ads! Thus, advertising offers real social benefits. It tells buyers of the goods and services
available.1 Today, we can even say that all media products are advertising in some sense –
for themselves but also for values or ways of life.2 In this sense advertising is indeed a
modern marketing necessity. Along with the rest of mass media, the Vatican sees
advertising among “gifts from God” and that in accordance with His providential design,
brings people together and helps them cooperate with His plan for salvation.3
On the other hand, the advertising industry is the most booming economic industry.
O&M, Saatchi & Saatchi and Lintas alone gross more revenue than any commercial hindi
film! At times, the advertising expenditure equals that of the production cost of the
product being advertised. Statistics reveal that the total amount of national advertising
revenue from print medium alone is nothing less than Rs 4,838 crores!4 But, that thin line
dividing necessity and extravagance is always debated. But one fact that broaches no
further arguments is this: Advertising is here to stay! In this context we also need to look
at ads as more than just invaders or ‘pests’!
Some would describe advertising as the business of persuading others to buy things. A
professional craft which aims at getting various segments of the population to change
their attitudes and behaviour in relation to aspects ranging from politics to lipstick, and
from an innerwear to the scent you use.5 “The technique of advertising is to correlate
feelings, mood or attributes to tangible objects, linking possible unattainable things with
those that are attainable, and thus reassuring us that the former are within reach.”6
Impact of Advertising
Vance Packard says, “The ad machine has created an alternative religion in which
salvation is perceived through the acquisition of possessions.”7 That in a nutshell
summarises the profound impact advertising has upon today’s world. At times mass
media is referred to as the contemporary religion! And advertising is the life-blood of the
commercial mass media. It has become a wide-reaching form of mass culture in it own
right.8
1 Vatican Council II, Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communication Communio et
progressio (29 January 1971) Austin Flannery (General ed.) Vatican Council II: The Conciliar andPost Conciliar
Documents, Study edition (New York: Costello Publishing Company, 1987) 313.
2 Gregory Baum, “The Church and the Mass Media”, Concilium John A. Coleman and Miklos
Tomka (eds) 6 (1993) 67.
3 Prewitt, 387.
4 Malini Bhupta, “War of the Words”, India Today, (19 September 2005) 67.
5 Michael Prewitt, “The True Worldliness of Advertising: Apologia pro vita Mea” Theology Today
Patrick D. Miller and Ellen T. Charry (eds) 60 (October 2003) 3, 384.
6
Sophie Gilliat, “Advertising as Pseudo-Religion”, Media Development: Journal of the World
Association for Christian Communication Michael Traber and Philip Lee, (eds) 41 (1994) 1, 30. Originally in
Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising (London: Marion Boyars
Publishers Ltd., 1978) 31.
7 Vance Packard, The Status Seekers (London: Pelican Books, 1961) 274.
8 Ellen McCracken, “Critical Approaches to Mass Culture: The Case of Advertising”, Media
Development: Journal of the World Association for Christian Communication Michael Traber and Philip Lee (eds) 31
(1984) 2, 11.
Advertisers are among the most purposive communicators. Merely attracting attention is
something bygone, making people pause to see and understand the message and then
making them go to buy the product, is the in-thing.9 For this reason, they know very well,
what they want to achieve, whom they wish to target, what response do they expect; yet
in no way do they take for granted that their message will have an impact which they can
control. In media, especially news reporting and advertising, there’s always an effect but
not necessarily an impact. Though deliberate attempts are made to regulate, the effect
often is practically out of the hand once the news is telecasted or the ad is released.10
Jesus’ Message and its impact
Jesus is hailed as the Master communicator. The four Gospels and the other traditions of
the Catholic Church provide a glimpse of the didactic principles of Jesus’ life and
teachings. The main thrust of Jesus in and through his teachings was the proclamation of
the Kingdom of God. It was His sole mission to communicate the love of God for all
humanity. This he did all his life and ultimately, in the most profound manner on the
Cross.
Scholars opine parables, allegories, admonitions and his silence as some of the profound
didactic methods used by Jesus. However, the most profound mode of Jesus’ instruction
was his very life. Therefore in a sense, his life and his teaching can never be separated.
But judging from the response that Jesus received during his life time, it can be said that
he was only partially successful. Not all understood what Jesus said and did. Even his
own apostles, if not for the Holy Spirit’s strength, would have been the first and last
Christians! In this sense, to conclude that Jesus was a super hit would be an exaggeration.
However, the impact today, is certainly phenomenal. Therefore was Jesus establishing
His ‘brand’ rather than merely ‘selling his products’ to those around Him?
ADVERTISING PRINCIPLES FOUND IN JESUS’ MINISTRY
Prior to the commencement of his ministry, Jesus considers all alternative methods in the
wilderness. Certainly he did have had some spectacular communication techniques. After
all, he was the Word. But Jesus knew that the service of God allows no shortcuts and
therefore he chooses a strategy: the ‘Nazareth Manifesto’ (Lk 4: 16ff).11
Clarity of Vision
The goal of Christian communication is the creation of a faithful community. In the Old
Testament, we have the community of Israel. But the key to this community was the
vision they had – or rather Yahweh had for them! Where there was no vision, the people
perish. Where there is no community the vision remains disincarnate. Therefore
important to note is that Christian communication takes place only in a witnessing
community, a community with a vision.12
S.L. Rao, “Advertising that Works”, The Telegraph (26 September 2005) 8.
Gaston Roberge, “The Impact of the Media on the Masses and the Media’s Role in Sharing the
Good News”, Indian Missiological Review George Plathottam and Johnson Puthenpurakal (eds) 18 (December
1995) 4, 5.
11 T.K. Thomas, “What is creative in Christian Communication”, Christian Communication in India:
Problems and Prospects (ed.) Mathai Zachariah (New Delhi: ISPCK, 1981) 23.
12 Thomas, 27-28.
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The mission of Jesus was communicating God’s love. But this communication had a bias
– it was always directed to the poor, the captive, the blind and the oppressed. His target
group was crystal clear to him. Neither did he preach to the whole world – just in and
around that Galilean region! Coming to the sphere of advertising, the verbal and visual
signs of ads are not intended to communicate universally across all sectors of a society
but to a specific audience with a specific taste. Advertising must define and target the
customer group it is aiming to persuade. This must be as close as can be. It must develop
a unique selling proposition to attract the group and articulate its proposition in as clear
and explicit terms as possible.13 Since advertising today has become very competitive,
unless the advertiser has his target group clear, the ad may be a technically good ad but
practically, a miserable failure.
So too, the language of the ad is to be decoded as part of the other systems of meaning
that surround it. The signs of a TV commercial communicate in conjunction with the
programming material that precedes and follows.14 Therefore you have all the home
appliances and cosmetic ads aired around the time of the ‘saas-bahu’ serials on Star Plus,
while none of them will be screened during a grand prix race on ESPN. The sort of ads
then will be that of engine oils, tyres, four-wheelers and so on. The same too with all
newspapers and magazines, each depending on the basic group to which they cater. The
Shillong Times caters exclusively to the Khasi population. Thus any advertiser wishing to
address just this select group would be wise to choose Shillong Times over The Telegraph.
The reason, The Telegraph has too wide an audience for the work at hand.
Thus the lesson is clear and simple: Have your vision clear and definite before you
preach or advertise. Furthermore, like Jesus, the advertiser also has to be alive to the
context and circumstantial neighbourhood of the ad. Whenever Jesus spoke, he related it
to the immediate context or happening in the surrounding place. His interventions were
all contextual. “I’m the bread of life!” was uttered after the feeding of the five thousand
and not before Pilate! “I’m the resurrection and the life!” was pronounced in the wake of
the death of Lazarus and not at the marriage feast at Cana!
Jesus’ Parables and Modern Day Ads
Touching Life and Promising an Experience of a Life time
The parables of Jesus are easy to remember and most of all have a very great appeal.
They led the listeners through a vivid life instance making that listening, a personal
experience. Ads too are crisp, crunchy and appealing. Like parables, they leave a lasting
impression upon its audience. That explains why ads of yesteryears like those for fevicol,
Nirma and Cherry Blossom are still fresh in people’s memory even though they are off
the air for quite a while. When one goes to purchase something what exactly does one
purchase? Take the example of coffee. You go to a godown, pick up a bag full of coffee
seeds. That’s a commodity. You walk into a supermarket and pick up a can of coffee.
That’s a product. You order a cup of coffee at a canteen: it’s a service. Or you can go to
the Baristas’ – with the music playing, a poem on the wall, exquisite paintings around,
sitting on the state-of-art furniture – well, that’s an experience! Commodity. Product.
Service. Experience – that’s a ladder of economic value. Advertisers and marketers are in
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Rao, 8.
McCracken, 12.
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the business of creating an experience and not just selling a commodity. Therefore
advertising is more than just informing about a product. It is communicating a basic
promise, an experiential invitation: “You can trust us!” In advertising terms that is ‘brand
advertising’.15
Take for example, the ad for mento-fresh which shows how a young lad gains entry into
the class, in spite of being late! It’s precisely in the communication of that young boy as a
winner, ‘a cool dude’ with the ‘smart guy’ tag that is relevant. Has the ad spoken about
the product? Absolutely nothing! Doing so would be inconsistent with the Mento-fresh
brand, the Mento-fresh promise, the Mento-fresh experience.
However, there is a slight hitch here which the Pontifical Council for Social
Communication rightly warns about. The Pontifical Council states that when an ad strays
from “informing people of the availability of rationally desirable new products and
services and improvements in existing ones” and begins to try to persuade or motivate,
then there is a grave danger that ad will create the basest of desires: status, sex appeal,
loyalty to the brand or product or corporation, addiction, closing up of other options! 16
Those ads which cross this line certainly are stark opposites of the parables of Jesus
which remain open-ended, leaving the hearer to make the final decision to act and in no
way manipulate his feelings, emotions or even his conscience.
The Inherent Persuasive Power
Jesus’ parables narrated two thousand years ago, not only have withstood the ravages of
time but are recounted even today with a special charm. English language derives phrases
from these parable: ‘Good Samaritan’, ‘at the eleventh hour’, ‘the lost sheep’ and so on.
The parables of the Prodigal son and the Good Samaritan are among the top ten best
stories ever told on this earth. The inherent persuasive power in the parables derived the
best out of human beings.
Of the ten essentials of advertising listed by traditional ad gurus, it is persuasiveness that
tops.17 It is used to attract attention, command interest, create desire, inspire conviction
or provoke action.18 In recent years, new trends have cropped up. One such is where the
product is not even illustrated. The purpose is to etch a brand name into the public
consciousness. Examples for this are the Intel Computer ad, the Mento-fresh ad and the
Hutch ad with the pug hound. This is achieved by making the campaign strategy itself –
the content, type of presentation, intended meaning, characters, tagline – a topic of
conversation. Another new method is to make ads deliberately offensive so that they
provoke articles in the newspaper and grab media space, thereby becoming topics of
everyday discourse. We recently had the Pepper Spray ad and the Royal Stag ad (of
Harbhajan Singh letting down his hair) to illustrate this.19
Prewitt, 390-393.
Prewitt, 392.
17 Informative, institutional, financial, classified, retail, co-operative, industrial, government and
trade are the other nine.
18 Sybil L. James and Thelma Y. Obah, “Beyond the Printed Word – Teaching Consumers about
Advertising Messages”, Media Development: Journal of the World Association for Christian Communication Michael
Traber and Philip Lee (eds) 34 (1987) 3, 5.
19 Chris Arthur, “Agony in Advertisements: Appraising Recent Media Images of Suffering and
Death”, Media Development: Journal of the World Association for Christian Communication Michael Traber and
Philip Lee (eds) 39 (1992) 4, 21.
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However, care is to be taken that when this immense persuasive capacity of ads is
directed towards the arousal rather than conveying truthful information it goes against
the very dignity of the viewer. It becomes equally repulsive and there is a danger that the
message henceforth will be viewed skeptically: “… unremitting pressure to buy articles of
luxury can arouse false wants that hurt both individuals and families by making them
ignore what they really need.”20
The Use of Rich Visual Imagery
Jesus’ parables contain real people acting in a character. There are two men building
house, a rich farmer, daily wage labourers, the sower, wedding guests, bridesmaids,
wicked tenants, victims of robbers, the unjust judge, the sulking elder son. 21 Thus all his
parables had a real collage of lively life. One need not enumerate the rich visual imagery
of contemporary ads. Take any TV ad, each has more life and vitality that the other.
Even ads on radio are made so lively that one barely just ‘hears’ them – one can tangibly
feel them!
Place of Truth in Jesus’ Message and Advertisements
The trademark of Jesus’ life and preaching was his support of Truth or rather He was
Truth “I’m the way, the truth and the life.” It is from this that flowed his authority.
Furthermore, He spoke the truth and never once had he to manipulate to communicate
what he wanted to. Unfortunately, this is perhaps the area of major concern when it
comes to advertising. One cannot bluntly accuse the advertisers of propagating lies –
there are laws and regulatory bodies (like the AAAI) to ensure that. But they do not tell
the truth either. They tend to reveal only those facts which will benefit them. The other
hard indigestible facts are shoved under the carpet. Thus they surely do not lie, but they
neither tell the truth!
A popular means of masking the truth is through subtle symbols. Just as written or oral
language in ads communicate meaning to us, so do non-verbal signs such as visual
representations, colour or even smell, as some magazines enclose scent strips. Verbal and
non-verbal signs work together in a complex structure to communicate meaning in ads.
Sometimes, one sign contradicts another; the overt message can be undercut by covert
meanings that other signs in the ad convey.22 The Kingfisher ad of “packaged drinking
water” is a splendid example for the same.
Furthermore, a trend slowly creeping into advertising is by which a socially subversive,
pro-impulse, anti-rules and anti-restrain message is casually being built into more and
more ad campaigns.23 Advertisements are often accused of promoting and glamourising
values that are overtly materialistic, self-centred, hedonistic, cynical and shallow.
Advertisers are focusing more and more on the emerging market of ‘people who do only
what they want to do’; people who yearn to be completely free of all restraint,
expectations and responsibilities (‘Just do it!’ of Nike).24
Vatican Council II, Communio et progressio, 313.
A.M. Hunter, Interpreting the Parables (London: SCM Press Ltd., 19642) 16-17.
22 McCracken, 11.
23 Prewitt, 386.
24 Prewitt, 386.
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The Vatican is clear about one fact: Advertising is good as long as there is respect for the
buyers’ liberty of choice, even though in trying to sell some particular object the
advertiser makes it appear as a real need. Ads too must respect the truth, taking into
account accepted ad conventions.25 However, there is a positive factor today. In the early
nineties, survey found the consumer believing in advertisement claims and buying
products as a result. But over the decade and half, the consumer seems to have crossed
the threshold and now understands that almost all products perform their functions
equally. The consumer now looks at the price and buys the product that offers its
functions at a lower price.26
Women in Ads and Jesus’ Ministry
Much of advertising is addressed to women, whose role as purchasers has made them
attractive targets for marketers. Both materially and culturally, shopping is considered the
women’s domain. Thus no ad ever shows a man asking for a packet of salt at a grocery
store! It always has to be a woman! Besides being the principal addresses for purchasing
reason, women are often used as cultural symbols in ads addressed to both sexes; often
ending up being portrayed for their sexual appeal rather than anything to do with the
products primary use.27 This trend to connect women and products ends up making the
woman a mere showpiece. Jesus never “used” women as props or crowd pullers for his
proclamation of the Kingdom of God. He knew well that he did not have to
sensationalise the Word – for truth needs no colouring! All the same, women were an
integral part of His ministry (Mk 15:41; Lk 8:2; 23:27, 55; Acts 8:12; 16:13; 17:4).
Ads sell dreams; Gospels Inspire Visions
Advertising has created a diversity of commercial icons as a means to reinforce belief in
success, ownership and the values of materialism. Thus we have ‘complan boy’, ‘the
complete man’, ‘LIC family’ and so on. Advertising down the line made a shift from its
communication strategy of touting product attributes to connecting products and
services to lifestyles and values. Today more than ever, ads sell not products but lifestyle,
attitudes and ultimately dreams. The ad of Bajaj with the tag line “Feels like God” is in
no way intending to sell bikes rather it is selling a strong, all powerful and ‘completely-incontrol’ personality.
Thus advertising today sell dreams, for the fulfillment of which that particular product is
touted as indispensable! The Gospels on the other hand, help individuals to envision!
The Gospels inspire and challenge human beings to build up from within. Values of hard
work, patience and perseverance thus are contrasted by the instant gratification and easy
life portrayal of ads. Christian communicators just need to pose that one question which
will certainly disarm this hypocritical dreamland: ‘Greatness lies in the bike or you?’ Thus
the shift of focus needs to be not the ‘becoming something’ but on ‘being someone’.
Ads and Gospel Values – Not an End in Themselves
One commonality between ads and the Gospel values is that neither of them is an end in
itself. The Gospel values, unless leading to God fall short of their very name, so too
unless ads lead the viewer to an authentic fulfillment of the purchased product, fail in
Vatican Council II, Communio et progressio, 313.
Rao, 8.
27 McCracken, 11.
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their essence. Thus neither ads nor Gospel values can claim supremacy over their
respective ends – satisfactory product and God.28
ADVERTISING GOSPEL VALUES
At this juncture, the inevitable question that confronts all Christian communicators is
this: Is there any possibility of these two spheres of modern life ever working hand in
hand? In other words: Can we truly advertise Gospel values?
Any authentic businessman will reveal that the real purpose of a business is to make a
profit. The purpose is to create and keep a customer.29 However, businesses have learnt
that it is so much more efficient to sell more or sell again to a current customer than to
keep creating new ones. This shift from relating to customers to retaining customers has
created a new dynamic twist: it has made customers the focus of any business.30
The Quartet of Gospel Advertising
Advertising is one means for a company or an organization to initiate and sustain the
interaction with customers in a commercial community. As the relationship is sustained,
the customer is free to grow more or less loyal to the community. Through the network
of these relationships, the economy and society are sustained. “From this point of view
she (Church) encourages advertising, which can become a wholesome and efficacious
instrument for reciprocal help among men.”31
Never be a Cultural Ostrich
People of faith must understand that the institutional expression of faith is a natural,
inevitable and important part of their religious belief. Religion does not exist in a cultural
vacuum. The only way religion can find expression is through culture – a particular
language, a shared set of values, a common history, a common idea of who ‘we’ are and
what ‘we’ should be!32 Advertising, like religion, has the capacity to define what is good
and bad, evil and admirable. It also appears to be similarly efficacious in terms of its
power to demonstrate the potential for the transformation of human lives.33 We need to
first and foremost accept the fact that the present ambient in which were are called to
communicate God’s message is a ‘different one’ and not just an ‘irreligious one’!
Mass is made up of Individuals
Mass media is not consumed by masses. It is consumed by individuals who make up the
mass! Even Evangeli nuntiandi (1975) says that while using mass media one should address
each individual “as if he were the only person being addressed.”34 One of the earliest
28 Therefore the Vatican Council II document, Communio et progression is right in forewarning,
“People get the impression that the instruments of communication exist solely to stimulate man’s appetite
so that there can be satisfied later by the acquisition of things that have been advertised.” Vatican Council
II, Communio et progressio, 314.
29 Peter Drucker, The Essential Drucker (New York: Harper Business, 2001) 20.
30 Prewitt, 389.
31 Prewitt, 395.
32 William F. Fore, “Commercial Media Versus Cultural and Spiritual Values”, Media Development:
Journal of the World Association for Christian Communication Michael Traber and Philip Lee (eds) 41 (1994) 3, 15.
33 Gilliat, 30.
34 Roberge, 8.
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dictums in advertising circles still in vogue is: ‘The consumer is not a moron; she’s your
wife!’35 If all advertisers bear in mind this age-old adage, then none would settle down for
anything cheap or demeaning. In today’s civilized world everyone craves for depth and
infotainment and not mere entertainment.
Secondly, the ‘you’ to whom ads speak usually has a gender and subgroup; viewers
interpretations depend on whether they are women or men, working or middle-class,
rural or urban, literate or illiterate, minority or dominant group of the society. Just as no
ad presented is neutral, no ad viewer is neutral!
Finally, and most importantly, if subliminal messages of advertising affect us so
profoundly why aren’t we, if not equally at least partially, influenced by the ‘daily routine’
of our religious life. Positively speaking, we are formed in a ‘religious routine’ – morning
meditation, mass, evening prayer, rosary, goodnight – that somewhere down the line, we
– if not consciously – subconsciously imbibe these as our own! But unless, we make a
conscious effort, it remains shallow. Because ultimately the decision is ours, personal. So
how come ads ‘seduce’ us but our practices of piety remain so impersonal?
An Integral Approach
A real study of advertising demands an adequate working knowledge of the advertising
trinity: the product, the consumer and the money. Concerned analysts, as we, must study
not only the content, portrayals and the verbal and visual communicative techniques of
ads but also the economic factors that underlie the representations. To do this we must
obtain information about the specific advertising medium employed, its audience and the
rates it charges, the agency that developed the campaign, as well as the product itself and
its parent corporation.36 Unless we have this groundwork done, we would be only
scratching the surface.
Once this is done a variety of independent means of social communication must
therefore be carefully safeguarded even if this requires legislative action. This will ensure
that there is an equitable distribution of advertising revenue among the most deserving
media of communication and prevent the lion’s share from going to those that are
already the most powerful.37 This is done best not by any ‘commission’ or ‘governing
body’ but by those who daily purchase goods and services, people like you and me.
Though the Vatican seems to be against brand advertising for it leaves a wide scope for
abuse, market analysis assures us of no grave danger. We need to accept the fact that no
advertising today merely sells products or services. All ads are brand advertisements!
However, market research has proved that unless brand advertisements fulfill all the
obligations as per the Pontifical Council38 the very product, does not survive the market!
The reason: the customer today is the centre.
The Innate Law of Mutual Sustenance
Rao, 8.
McCracken, 13.
37 Vatican Council II, Communio et progressio, 314.
38 Good ads bring people news of “...rationally desirable new products and services and
improvements in existing ones, helping them to make informed, prudent consumer decisions…”
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The total output of the media in any given area should be judged by the contribution it
makes to the common good.39 True worldliness for advertising means that advertising
attains its own ‘innate law’ not over or against Christ but through the dominion of Christ.
And that innate law is the binding of the company and customer, of product and buyer,
of brand and loyalist, in a mutually sustaining commercial exchange.40 If a doctor professes
health or healing, a lawyer, justice an advertiser professes ‘brand loyalty of the
customers’! He professes a win-win proposition of an ongoing relationship of customer
and company, product and brand. Along the way, the advertising may inform, entertain
or interrupt. But the work is done in the service of creating and keeping a customer.41
Some Signposts: Evangelising through Advertising
Vatican Council II invited the people of God to use effectively and at once the means of
social communication zealously availing themselves of them for apostolic purposes.42
This open invitation of the Church is more than just a permit to enter what was once
considered the domain of the Mammon! At the same time, we need to keep in mind that,
the media are not the same as a Church pulpit! It cannot be overstressed that the
standard of such presentations must at least equal in quality the other productions of the
media.43 Though the Church has not ventured far into this mode of proclamation, I am
fully convinced that advertising is indeed a very effective and the medium beckoning all
Christian communicators today. If non-commercial ads like that for polio eradication, TB
prevention, blood donation, use of helmets, respect for the national flag and selfpromotional ads of NDTV can create a profound impression, why not values?
Furthermore, if vices can be subtly camouflaged and successfully conveyed to the
audience, why not virtues? It is tricky but after all, it is an advertisers’ world! Here below
are a few signposts which will help us make an attempt.
Communication is not just one function of the Church – it is the sole function. In the
process of institutionalization, communication became the function of one particular
department of the Church. We are so busy expanding and building up this department
that we lose track of our basic mission – that of bringing Good News to the poor, and
proclaiming liberty to the captive.44
Christian communication need not always be by a Christian! A ‘secular’ programme or a
‘secular’ ad may well be ‘Christian’ in the fullest sense. Because the communication of
Christ is ultimately Christ’s own work and he chooses his instruments as he wills. Hence
the additional responsibility of the Christian communicator to discern the work of Christ
in all spheres of human life and interpret his presence in the world in ways that will
challenge, call to commitment and lead to reconciliation.45 To begin, the best means of
approaching the world of advertising is networking: Networking with like minded
organizations, individuals, NGO’s, production houses…
Vatican Council II, Communio et progressio, 299.
Prewitt, 395.
41 Prewitt, 396.
42 Vatican Council II, Decree on the Means of Social Communication Inter mirifica (4 December
1963) Austin Flannery (General ed.) Vatican Council II: The Conciliar andPost Conciliar Documents, Study edition
(New York: Costello Publishing Company, 1987) 288.
43 Vatican Council II, Communio et progressio, 334.
44 Thomas, 24-25.
45 Thomas, 27.
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Children are no more a part of the audience, they are a market by themselves. 46 Ask any
boy in a city school, “What is a tazzo?” or “Who is Pokemon?” or “The Rock?” Be
prepared for an avalanche of information. From where did the boy get all this
knowledge? Mere playthings in the ‘kurkure’ packet sold all over. If that small card can
give so much of information, why not try replicating the Pokemon tazzos or WWF play
cards with parable pieces?
Most often our city Parish boards facing the main road announce nothing more than
‘Mass timings’. Why not turn them into billboards? All that’s needed is a large picture of
any one Gospel sequence and an apt and short quote from the same! Catechism classes
would be anything but what they are, if we can narrate Gospel extracts and at the end
give them a xeroxed sketch of a still from the same extract. Let them colour it and paste
it in their classroom or bedroom.
All our printed pictures and posters are all good and ‘holy pictures’. Can we not print
some ‘unholy’ catechetical pictures which can be used for purposes other than only
kissing and using as bookmarks in our Bible. We could try name labels, book covers,
stickers, cartoons of Gospel instances which can be used – or rather ‘abused’ – especially
by children!
The Tagline
To the extent that religion seeks to alert us to a set of values beyond the imperatives of
material comfort and sensual satisfaction advertising is therefore, often seen as
something profoundly anti-religious. However, I strongly believe that the basic principles
which guide and govern the advertising world are the same by which Jesus himself
preached and proclaimed two thousand years ago. Then you may rightly ask, where then
does the problem arise? Perhaps the crux of the apparent divergent perspectives of
advertising and Jesus’ values arises from the motivation behind. If Jesus’ values sprang
from the abundance of his self-less love for God and humanity, advertisements seem to
spring from the tug of war between the customer – or better still, the market – and the
product manufacturers. But if the innate law of mutual sustenance is let to prevail,
advertising would be the best channel of evangelization.
The late Pope John Paul II, reckoned as the Pope of the Media showed us that in order
to dabble in media you do not have to ‘sell your soul’. He stood unflinchingly in support
of the very Gospel values which we spoke of all along; yet his media savvyness endeared
him to the media world. With Jesus as our model and content, what is needed is some
creativity, great zeal and much love.
46 However, we need to treat them as children, bearing in mind that their ability to discern
hyperbole from reality or to disentangle persuasive appeals from personal wants is still not mature.
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