Going from Selling God to Leaving God.
Selling God
Ad agencies don’t normally have churches as clients. My Madison Avenue agency did and the relationship lasted 16 years. BTW, the average agency-client relationship is just 18 months.
We didn’t go after the church as a client, the minister approached me. I was a church member and when he learned I headed up an award-winning Madison Avenue ad agency he was eager to talk. As I would soon learn there was another reason he wanted to talk. His Board had just approved an ad budget of $150,000.
Our meeting eventually led to my agency being awarded a big project — an ad campaign to attract young people. It was pretty wild to be informed of that. But, then came the real challenge — How the heck do I do it? I knew that getting jaded, 20-something New Yorkers to come to church on Sunday morning would be no easy task.
But knowing the church as well as I did, helped. I knew that the church had a ton of great programs, activities, and groups and I had been personally involved with many of them. I believed that the church genuinely cared about its members and their needs. So, I knew I needed ads that conveyed that. But I wondered, “Would that be enough?”
I’m selling the church, but what if I try selling God?
I knew I needed highly creative ads that could cut through with an edgy New York attitude and humor. With that in mind I thought: “I’m selling the church, but what if I try selling God?” I then focused on trying to do that.
What I came up with was a series of playful, pithy, God and church-related headlines — things like; “Make a Friend in a Very High Place” and “Our Product Really Does Perform Miracles.” The media, I decided, would be NYC subways and billboards that would be seen by tens of thousands of Manhattanites.
That said, in a saturated media market like NYC 150K worth of media is usually not enough to make a splash. But if done right with great creative, it can. And, ours did.
Wherever I went people seemed to know about it and like it, which was super great to know. We also got some amazing press. The campaign was covered in The New York Times, USA Today, TIME, The New York Daily News, ADWEEK and even some International Press. I also got a surprise call from the major book publisher Prentice-Hall requesting to use it as a featured case study in their upcoming college textbook, Principles of Marketing. And, a few months after the campaign began the minister and I got invited to be featured guests on a syndicated TV show called “The God Squad” hosted by a priest and a rabbi. The entire show focused on the campaign and here’s a clip.
As a result of all that the minister decided to keep working with me and my agency for the next 15 years until he retired.
Leaving God
For the first few years it was truly fantastic having a visible and successful NYC campaign with great press and a thrilled client. Then 9/11 happened.
If you remember how you felt when you first heard about the towers being hit, multiply that by ten. That’s how it felt for me being in Manhattan. I could see the towers burning from my apartment and, like many Manhattanites, I was in a state of shock for days. I wondered how a loving God could let this happen.
Not long after the first news reports, it was reported that the attack was done by terrorists who did it “in the name of God” … or, at least, in the name of their radical Islamic perception of God. I thought about that and then thought about something I recalled from my high school history class: The Crusades. “Didn’t those Middle Age Christians kinda do the same thing?” I wondered. After spending an hour researching it, it turned out they did. They, too, killed and murdered in the name of God … or, at least, in their radical Christian perception of God. That knowledge triggered more serious questioning and researching religion and God for the next 16 years.
“Leaving God” The Movie.
In 2017, after those many years of research and fact-finding, I decided to try something I’d never attempted: Make a documentary film. I decided it would be based on what I’d learned as well as my personal experience seeking God and Truth. I suspected that my desires and questions were pretty universal and I was hopeful that, if done well, the film would have a decent audience. After months of focus and hard work I ended up with a 47-minute film entitled: LEAVING GOD: Why I left God and why so many others are too.
Despite what the title may suggest I made very sure to not to make it anti-God. I made sure to approach it like an objective, independent, investigative reporter ensuring that all statements and claims were from legitimate sources and 100% accurate. And, regarding my personal story, it was just that — my personal story and not what I think others should think or believe. Here’s the :60 trailer:
To my surprise it was extremely well-received getting into multiple film festivals while winning awards at two including the esteemed Hollywood International Documentary Film festival. I then posted it online so anyone could watch it free. It didn’t get of ton of views until a site I’d never heard of called Top Documentary Films found it, featured it on their site, and gave it a great review. In a week views tripled.
Then the film started getting great reviews from respected people including scholar/philosopher, Daniel Dennett, and the BBC’s Antonia Rae. It also got positive comments from folks around the world. As I had hoped many people related to my quest and I greatly appreciated their positive feedback.
In an interview I was asked, “What’s the main takeaway you hope people will get from the film?” I said that my goal was simple — to inform and entertain viewers and get them to think. I had no agenda beyond that. I only wanted to share some facts and my experience and then have viewers come up with their own takeaway.
Currently (Dec ’21) the film has 35.5k views from 98 countries. And, after 4 years I’m still getting interviewed about it. What that tells me is that the theme of this film is still relevant and possibly even more so than in 2017 when I made it. Because now, more than ever, people are asking the big questions and seeking truthful answers. And that’s a very good thing.
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John Follis spent a 30-year career on Madison Ave running his agency, Follis&Verdi, and creating many award-winning campaigns. To learn more about his documentary, listen to this podcast and read this interview.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
