If the community in which a campaign is to be held knows nothing of the meetings, how can the people attend? If the campaign is advertised, but in a slipshod manner, will not the people of the community grade the meetings by the advertising that comes into their homes?
In many of our institutes, workers' meetings, and union sessions, we make a distinction between large city evangelism and small city evangelism. To my way of thinking no distinction should be made. This suggestion may come as a surprise to many, but before any conclusions are arrived at, let us give some study to the matter.
Advertising is the means by which we can get a message across to the public in a few words to make them want to attend our meetings. If we make a distinction between small city and large city evangelism and conclude that, because our meetings are being held in a smaller community, we shall have to skimp on our advertising, then our results will be skimpy also.
The main difference between a large city and a smaller one is the number of people in each. We find barber shops, filling stations, men's stores, department stores, grocery stores, hardware stores, large beautiful homes, and small ill-kept homes in both types of cities. The people in a small city react in much the same way that people in a large city do. It will take just as much thought and work to attract the inhabitants of a small city as it will to attract the people of a large city, and in many cases it will take more thought and planning.
Our newspaper advertisement should dominate the page on which it appears just as much in a small-town paper as a metropolitan paper, and our handbills should be printed on as good a grade of paper. Our window cards must be more outstanding than anything the small-town people have ever seen, for in small towns the store windows are widely used to attract the people.
Such things as dropping handbills from the air onto a small town will create attention, whereas in a large city it probably could not be done. Or, if done, it would create very little comment.
One effective method of advertising is to get permission from stores directly across the street from each other to project slides from their buildings. In using this method you place a large screen (made of sheets and weighted down at the bottom) on the front of one building, and then show your pictures from across the street from the upstairs window of another building. In this manner, if you so desire, you may use your picture rolls to give a Bible study where everyone who passes may be able to see it. Slides advertise the meetings, and should be shown either before or after, or at both times.
It is distressing to many a conference president to see some of the advertising that comes from our smaller city evangelists. Our message is the greatest thing that ever came to this old sin-cursed earth. It deserves the best in advertising. Never, never advertise the message in a cheap manner. It must be remembered that preaching the gospel, and especially this last-day message, is the biggest selling job in the whole world. This may be looking at the art of preaching in a matter-of-fact light, but if more evangelists would look at it from a more practical viewpoint, they would reap a larger harvest.
We do not want anything sensational, but we do need something outstanding. There is a difference. Our advertising should bring attention to our message instead of bringing attention to the man. Surely there is a much more effective way of advertising than is now being used by many. The conventional method is to place the evangelist's picture in the ad, telling about him and the subject of the message. There must be a better way. We must attract men and women to the message so that they will want to attend the meeting. After all, if we go into a new town, people do not know us from any other evangelist. What they will be interested in is some outstanding message, no matter who is giving it. Draw men to the message, and you will draw an audience worth speaking to.
It is well for our evangelists to study books on business efficiency and display advertising, also to study human nature and books that will tell us what makes people buy. Presenting the gospel is mass salesmanship, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, of course, and we must learn what makes people change over to our way of thinking, and cause them to buy our product.
Our job of selling takes more study, thought, and work than any other job of selling in the world. Sometimes it is most difficult to give something away for nothing. The other night in our evangelistic meeting I took a dollar bill from my pocket and offered it to the first person who would come forward and accept it. There were no strings attached, and I gave assurance of that fact. I also assured them that it was a genuine bill put out by the United States Treasury department, and it was not counterfeit. Not one person budged from his seat. After a time of Waiting for someone to take it, I put it back in my pocket and withdrew the opportunity.
You can see the point I was trying to put across. It proves how hard it is to give something away for nothing. The gospel is free. The better way of life which we are offering is free. We are offering eternal life to the people of our communities, and it is free too. But this seems to be the hardest selling job in the world.
Most people like the way they are living. They do not desire to change. They believe that they are all right the way they are, for many of them are already church members. Few, if any, ever come with the idea of letting you change their way of life.
We step into the pulpit, tell the people they should give up their tobacco, highballs, tea, coffee, and pork. We also tell them they must stop work on Saturday, the busiest day in the week, and then we take one tenth of their income, plus another portion for offerings. We take away their shows, dances, and gaming rooms. We tell them about the Spirit of prophecy and want them to believe it, though they have been making fun of Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith, and other self-styled prophets. We tell the people there is no eternal burning hell though they have been brought up to believe in one. We tell the people, and desire them to believe, that their loved ones are not in heaven but resting in sleep until the second coming of Christ. All this and more we expect people to accept, and yet we do not study the psychology of what makes people do things.
Our newspaper advertising should be presented in such a way that it will make people curious, and even prepare them for the shock which they will get when they attend the meeting. For instance. In advertising the subject of "Hell" it is a good idea to add the words : "This address may be different from what you expect.
Both infidel and Christian will say, The most sensible explanation I ever heard.'" In this way we prepare our public for something different and arouse their curiosity to a pitch where they want to know what you are going to say. This principle is used in all advertising —newspapers, handbills, window cards, letters, and invitations. It is time we learned more about human nature if we expect to have success in dealing with it.
Another good advertising feature is to institute the "Shuttle Service." Before the opening night of your series of meetings, get a list of church members who are willing to use their cars to go after people and take them home Advertise your "Shuttle Service." Let the people know that if they do not have a convenient way to attend the meeting, all they have to do is call a certain telephone number, and a car will pick them up and take them home again, and that there is no charge for this service. Have those who have agreed to use their cars well instructed not to preach your sermon before getting their passengers to the service ; nor must they tell what will be said in future sermons. This is an excellent way of finding out people's names, where they live, and what they think of your lectures, for your cab drivers will tell you what each person said about the service.
There are many more ways of advertising that could be brought out in this article. Would it not be a good idea to have an "Exchange Corner" in THE MINISTRY, where we could all write in our problems and how we overcame them, whether it be in advertising or otherwise, so that all may benefit from the experiences of others?
