December 4, 2008 - Comments Off on Church Enlists Beelzebub for Branding Campaign

Church Enlists Beelzebub for Branding Campaign

StopGoodTV logo“Old Scratch” recently sold his likeness and bottomless soul to the Catholic Archdioses of Brooklyn. Starring in a new campaign for a New York religious cable service: The Prayer Channel – and devilishly re-branded into a hipster acronym: NET (New Evangelism Television) – the “Horned One” appears to be home-bent on luring average TV viewers into watching New Evangelism Television by using an age-old psychological trick typically used to fool children into drinking medicine or finishing their yucky plate of brussel sprouts...Make subject do the opposite of what they would normally do by presenting a conflicting argument to do it in the first place.

However, by creating a groovy skateboard-friendly icon of “Natas“ (his real name has been cleverly disguised at his request...), and using a doofus poseur in a red costume with horns, I wonder who the campaign is targeting... Christians, the last time I checked, really, REALLY hate the red guy with the pitchfork – so why the agency that masterminded the campaign (LA-based Cesario Migliozzi) would use the likeness of the fiendish Baphomet on t-shirts, buttons and other merchandise to get people to actually watch Christian television programming is odd, to say the least. To a designer, this horned fella looks damned cool and not off-putting in the least – and to the kiddies, this icon is more appealing than Joe Camel squatting in a vat of gummy bears and drizzled with candy juice.

Considering that the majority of television today involves either reality shows with mindless plots, or general pointlessness already, I don't know if the ads are going to convert many non-religious folks to New Evangelism Television that weren't freaked out by the appearance of anything deftly armed with head horns, fangs or a pointed tail already.

In fact, something tells me that “Say-Ten” Himself (his real name once again cleverly disguised at his request), may have pulled the ol' switcheroo on the Catholic Church, by knowingly testing this campaign on us foolish mortals ahead of his real plot to unveil the Anti-Christ in the form of a really cool snowboard graphic. The only thing effectively and deliberately lame about the entire campaign is a knockoff on Burger King’s often imitated Subservient Chicken campaign – featuring a impatient, benevolently horned and mustachioed Lord of Darkness appearing to answer questions typed by his minions. After feverishly typing “Who’s your daddy?” repeatedly, all the hellfire I could squeeze out of this Crimson Putz were mindless, unrelated responses about “not going” to an unrelated Web site, and something about “His Evilness” knowing my IP address...

In the end, it seems that the only thing obvious about the campaign is that it firmly confirms my suspicion that the end of world will not come from a leaping fiend from Hades, but instead will likely be perpetrated by the ad agencies in and around The City of Angels...

Dave Fletcher is a Founder and Creative Director at theMechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa. While Dave likes to poke fun at Los Angeles, he’s been there a couple times and has only run into Satan twice ...

Published by: davefletcher in The Design Mechanism, The Thinking Mechanism
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