"I want to be your ecstasy"
With slang headlines, an unknown person in the USA promotes more religiosity
An unknown man uses slang headlines to promote more religiosity in the USABy Thérèse Balduzzi An unusual campaign is making headlines in America: On billboards and television, God is speaking to people in slang in forty states. The client wants to remain anonymous.
"Let's meet at my house on Sunday. - God," "Have you read my No. 1 bestseller? - God" or "I really meant it - God" were written on billboards in Florida in 1998. Behind it was an anonymous client who had rented a handful of advertising spaces in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) to spread his private interpretation of Bible texts. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the industry organization for outdoor advertising, which annually takes up a public service campaign free of charge, ensured that the campaign was distributed nationwide on more than 10000 billboards in 40 states.
In its new phase, which has just started, the campaign is aimed specifically at young people. This, too, is being shown in forty states on posters, on buses, at bus stops and in shopping malls, and is being broadcast as a TV spot in which the messages are sprayed onto the screen to techno music.
For the "God speaks to Kids" campaign, God speaks in the slang of American youth: "Let me be your ecstasy," "Think I planted stuff down here for you to smoke?" and "Yo, casual sex is on my list of deadly sins" are the ingratiating sayings to America's youth.
The 16 messages to young people mainly revolve around alcohol, drug abuse, divorced parents, sex, hatred and violence and are based on the Ten Commandments. A forum has been set up on the website www.wuzupgod.com where young people can share their thoughts on the subject.
Both campaigns were designed by agency SmithAgency.com, a subsidiary of QuikBIZ Internetgroup in Fort Lauderdale. The second round was launched in partnership with Gateway Outdoor Advertising of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, which donated the money to place billboards in 15 markets.
Gateway has also made connections with other outdoor advertising firms that have underwritten the cost of eight additional markets. The campaign will appear primarily in urban areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Washington D.C., Miami, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City and Philadelphia.
The following statement was released through the agency by the client, who wishes to remain anonymous: "Every day we watch our children die and our families destroyed. When people talk to God, establish a relationship with God, and are guided by His rules, we will begin to save lives."
All that is known about the mysterious client is that he is an individual, a man who sensed a need for religion because of the Lewinsky scandal and the shootings in American schoolyards. According to SmithAgency insiders, he is a powerful, wealthy man who is said to have close ties to the evangelical community.
MTV has rejected the unknown's spots
Criticism of the campaign centered at most on the question of whether it was ethically okay to put such casual language in God's mouth. In a country where the religious right has grown in power in recent years and is accustomed to spreading and imposing its opinions, it is surprising that the campaign did not trigger more fundamental debates. Only the cable channel MTV is known to have rejected the ad for this reason, while the black music channel BET has accepted it.
"Let's meet at my house on Sunday. - God," "Have you read my No. 1 bestseller? - God" or "I really meant it - God" were written on billboards in Florida in 1998. Behind it was an anonymous client who had rented a handful of advertising spaces in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) to spread his private interpretation of Bible texts. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the industry organization for outdoor advertising, which annually takes up a public service campaign free of charge, ensured that the campaign was distributed nationwide on more than 10000 billboards in 40 states.
In its new phase, which has just started, the campaign is aimed specifically at young people. This, too, is being shown in forty states on posters, on buses, at bus stops and in shopping malls, and is being broadcast as a TV spot in which the messages are sprayed onto the screen to techno music.
For the "God speaks to Kids" campaign, God speaks in the slang of American youth: "Let me be your ecstasy," "Think I planted stuff down here for you to smoke?" and "Yo, casual sex is on my list of deadly sins" are the ingratiating sayings to America's youth.
The 16 messages to young people mainly revolve around alcohol, drug abuse, divorced parents, sex, hatred and violence and are based on the Ten Commandments. A forum has been set up on the website www.wuzupgod.com where young people can share their thoughts on the subject.
Both campaigns were designed by agency SmithAgency.com, a subsidiary of QuikBIZ Internetgroup in Fort Lauderdale. The second round was launched in partnership with Gateway Outdoor Advertising of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, which donated the money to place billboards in 15 markets.
Gateway has also made connections with other outdoor advertising firms that have underwritten the cost of eight additional markets. The campaign will appear primarily in urban areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Washington D.C., Miami, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City and Philadelphia.
The following statement was released through the agency by the client, who wishes to remain anonymous: "Every day we watch our children die and our families destroyed. When people talk to God, establish a relationship with God, and are guided by His rules, we will begin to save lives."
All that is known about the mysterious client is that he is an individual, a man who sensed a need for religion because of the Lewinsky scandal and the shootings in American schoolyards. According to SmithAgency insiders, he is a powerful, wealthy man who is said to have close ties to the evangelical community.
MTV has rejected the unknown's spots
Criticism of the campaign centered at most on the question of whether it was ethically okay to put such casual language in God's mouth. In a country where the religious right has grown in power in recent years and is accustomed to spreading and imposing its opinions, it is surprising that the campaign did not trigger more fundamental debates. Only the cable channel MTV is known to have rejected the ad for this reason, while the black music channel BET has accepted it.
