Bibles are big business. Although their sales receipts are not tabulated for best-seller lists, Bible publishers bring in at least half a billion dollars each year. As one industry observer noted, with imagery not typically associated with the Good Book: “Wrapping your arms around this market is like hugging an 800-pound gorilla—it’s huge, it’s intimidating, and it can turn on you” (Publishers Weekly, October 30, 2006).
One way to obtain results is advertising to reach precisely pinpointed potential purchasers. It made good sense, therefore, for Zondervan, “the Christian publishing behemoth in Grand Rapids, Mich.” (as described in the Chicago Sun-Times), to place an advertisement for its Today’s New International Version Bible (TNIV) in publications that attract readers in the desirable 18–34-year-old demographic: “53 percent of this age group read the Bible less than once a year … although they are huge buyers of books on spiritual and religious themes” (USA Today).
Rolling Stone clearly appeals to this age group, and the TNIV ad (like those prepared for other diverse, but clearly mainstream, publications such as The Onion and Modern Bride) did not mention the words “God” or “Christ” (Advertising Age).
After an apparent acceptance months earlier, Rolling Stone’s last-minute rejection of the ad (widely reported in the media)—on the grounds that the magazine is “not in the business of publishing advertising for religious messages”—was met with near-universal condemnation or, more precisely, scorn. Repentantly changing course more quickly than most of us would turn the other cheek, Rolling Stone accepted the ad, and a spokesperson blamed the whole thing on “internal miscommunications that led to the previous misstatement of company policy” (according to USA Today). Score one for the TNIV.
When this story broke in early 2005, it raised questions of free speech and sensitivity to diverse populations as they relate to advertising and commercials. Scholastic Parent and Child magazine, a publication for school-age children, turned down an advertisement for talking dolls that speak Bible verses (as reported in the Daily News of Los Angeles). Four Biblical characters were featured when this line of dolls was introduced: Moses, David, Jesus and Mary. To the magazine’s contention that “We cannot be in a position of advocating one thing over another—especially in the realm of faith,” the doll manufacturer responded that they had included Old Testament as well as New Testament characters. And in any case, argued a New York-based toy consultant, these dolls don’t actually advocate anything: They “simply recite Scripture.”
The International Bible Society paid to insert almost 100,000 copies of the New Testament into a late-December issue of The Gazette in Colorado Springs. IBS viewed it as “a Christmas gift to the people of Colorado Springs,” but not everyone saw it that way: “Some Jews and Muslims said getting the New Testament with the Sunday paper felt like being proselytized in their homes.” The final statement in the news report (as published by The New York Times) went to a local pastor who opined, “It seems that it’s O.K. to be anything these days but Christian.” These and other similar media reports point to a unique feature of advertising in the big business of Bibles (stated in The Christian Science Monitor): “It’s quite unlike Corn Flakes—it leads to fights.”
Bibles are big business. Although their sales receipts are not tabulated for best-seller lists, Bible publishers bring in at least half a billion dollars each year. As one industry observer noted, with imagery not typically associated with the Good Book: “Wrapping your arms around this market is like hugging an 800-pound gorilla—it’s huge, it’s intimidating, and it can turn on you” (Publishers Weekly, October 30, 2006). One way to obtain results is advertising to reach precisely pinpointed potential purchasers. It made good sense, therefore, for Zondervan, “the Christian publishing behemoth in Grand Rapids, Mich.” (as described in the Chicago […]
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