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Sea-Monkeys and Other Monkey Business: Ethics in Christian Marketing
By chris | April 21, 2007
Once upon a time there was a young boy who was reading the advertisements in the back of his comic book. There on display for all to see was an unbelievable offer. The ad showed a tiny family of happy humanoid sea creatures enjoying themselves. Sea Monkeys!
These Sea-Monkeys really captured the imagination of the boy. The advertisement was eye-catching, the copy made the potential sea-monkey owner child drool with anticipation for the product. The thought of all the excitement and fun of being master over an entire colony of miniscule humanoids—who could resist? That’s better than being a pastor!
The young boy quickly filled out the order card and droped it in the mail box at the end of his driveway. He could hardly wait to receive by US Post the “real live pets you grow yourself” that “swim, play, scoot, race, do comical tricks and stunts” and “they can even be ‘trained.’” All for $1.25 plus 50¢ shipping! The boy knew his life was about to change.
Days rolled by slowly. The young boy waited. Every car that passed in the street made him check to see if the mail carrier had arrived.
Finally the day arrived! When the boy received the Sea-Monkey kit, he tore into the package with the humanoid characters on the front of the box. Sadly he was disappointed to find that inside the Sea-Monkey kingdom was really only a tiny plastic tank and a package of brine shrimp. No castle, no humanoids, no races, no tricks, no tiny colony to rule. You really couldn’t train them. You could only peep through the little magnifying glass spots on the side of the tank and watch them twitch. This was not at all what was advertised. How disappointing!
“Who could do such a thing?”, the young boy thought. How could these people take advantage of people in that way? What are the mental gymnastics you have to use to justify to yourself developing advertising that is misleading small kids?
I am sure the people at the Sea Monkey..err..factory…felt they were only doing their jobs in selling the Sea Monkey kits. And there’s no problem putting your best foot forward. But shouldn’t there be some kind of ethic that keeps you from misleading kids with the advertising strategy being used?
The advertising tactics used in the 1970’s are not the same one used now in 2007. On their website now they are a lot more up-front about what Sea-Monkey really are. I use my childhood story to make another point anyway, but watch them and judge for yourself if they “play, scoot, race, do comical tricks and stunts” and if you think “they can even be ‘trained.’”
I have gotten over my Sea Monkey disappointment. But I still feel the same sense of disappointment when I look at some of the advertising I see coming out of churches today. I have this same feeling that somehow a discussion of ethics is needed for the church to address the ways they put their message out in to the community. Not everything that works, is morally right. For Christians, the end doesn’t always justify the means.
What would Machiavelli Do?
Some churches, it seems, are more likely to ask “What would Machiavelli Do“ than What Would Jesus Do?. They tend to function as though the end justifies the means when it comes to marketing. Their Machiavellian tactics lead them to feel justified in misleading people, stealing other’s property, tricking people and manipulating them psychologically.
Sometimes we don’t realize we are guilty of doing things that are considered unethical or illegal in the marketplace. When Nathan said to David in 2 Samuel 12:7, “Thou art the man” David had blinded himself to his own sins. It seems he wanted to forget how he came to know Bathsheba and move on. Nathan had to call him to account. The standards in Christian marketing are not what other people say they are, they are what God says about honesty, moral character and love.
The reason many churches don’t spend enough time thinking about how they are doing their marketing and considering if they are doing it in a way that glorifies God, from my experience, is that churches are often poor at planning and tend to always be in a last minute rush in developing media. Let’s pause and reflect on a few points to consider in ethics of Christian marketing.
In the spirit of writing shorter posts, I am going to break this up into 10 separate posts since I see it will become too long to post as one essay.
Stay tuned for Ten Ethical Traps for Christian Marketing
- Bait and Switch Tactics
- False Word-of-Mouth Tactics
- Using Provocative Words or Images to Capture Attention
- Misleading People through Design
- Breaking Copyright Laws and Stealing Intellectual Property
- Failing to Pay for Services Rendered or Using Spiritual Justification for short changing vendors
- Using Your Marketing Ability and Budget to Compete with Other Churches.
- Creating Fake Platforms to Attract People (misrepresenting yourself in any way)
- Masking Denominational Affiliation or Theological Beliefs Core to Your Church
- Using Ministry Funds (or Time) to Perpetuate Your Personal Career Goals
Topics: Deliver the Message |
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