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Okay, well perhaps not like that! Watching the clip above in The Simpsons the other day made me question why the Catholic Church doesn’t advertise. Things have changed, attending a Catholic Church is no longer just part of everyday life for many people. Indeed, people can walk past a Catholic Church just like a product on a shelf in a supermarket – unless Catholicism tells people why they should pop in, they’re gonna keep walking past. Companies advertise, perhaps Catholicism should.

What are we selling?

Afterlife insurance. Essentially, we’re marketing your ticket out of here and into heaven.

The problem? So is everyone else in our market. We need to work out what it is that makes Catholicism so special, what makes us different from the Muslims or Hindus… why people should be one of us and not one of them.

Not only that, we face increasing competition from within Christianity itself. The monopoly on Christ has passed and the church needs to deal with it. If people settle on a Christian way of life, what reason is there for them becoming a Catholic? Other denominations offer salvation through Christ at less of a cost. Catholic moral teaching is a lot more restrictive than that of some other Christian groups, for example the Church of England teaches that sex within marriage is an expression of physical love whereas Catholic teaching is that sex is only for procreation. Why should people give up sex for pleasure in order to achieve salvation, when our competitors are offering salvation with sex for pleasure?

The Catholic Church needs to work out why we’re the best and broadcast that to the world.

Atheism

Imagine if someone came along and started running adverts saying, “Actually, you don’t need washing powder… it’s all a sham”. The washing powder companies would be all over it, running adverts telling the public why they do need washing powder. It’s the same with religion, which is coming under fire from the atheists. Indeed, recently they started advertising…

A tarnished reputation

When a product or brand is in trouble, what do they do? They advertise, advertise, advertise. They try to restore people’s confidence in their product. Look at McDonald’s, a few years ago they were facing allegations of making kids obese and causing environmental damage. Even today, their ad campaigns are focused on the ‘healthy’ carrot sticks and responsibly-sourced ingredients that they use. I have to say, I think it’s working – personally, I feel better about eating at McDonald’s now.

Recently, Catholicism has come into disrepute over physical, sexual and emotional abuse claims by the clergy on children. We absolutely should be using advertising to make this right – addressing the issues and answering people’s questions in order to regain trust (and therefore ‘customers’).

Is it right to advertise Catholicism?

For all of the reasons above, I think so. Moreover, other Christian denominations advertise – why shouldn’t we? I’ve always found His Holiness Benedict XVI’s speeches inspiring, but I only know about them because I’m Catholic. If we could get his message to the world through advertising, there’s endless possibilities.

Labels: atheism, multi-faith, multimedia, techology