Brent Finnegan -- August 11th, 2008
If you’ve seen these signs around town, taped to light poles and planted in front yards, you may have been wondering what they are. Turns out it’s an ad campaign for Aletheia Church.
Reminds me of some viral marketing version of Lovemarks. Or this documentary produced by a former Harrisonburg resident.
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I saw a few of them earlier this evening on lightpoles heading west into Harrisonburg, right by Martin’s/Kohl’s/etc.
You know, if you take a look at this Church’s website, referenced by someone above, you’d see that the City Manager is a “leader” of this Church.
If the “postings” for lack of a better word are bothering you, why not give Kurt a polite call?
Please don’t give Kurt a call. Once again he had no part in this. This was an idea thought up by the creative team of Aletheia Church. Blame me as one of the pastors of the church not Kurt. He’s innocent in all of this. If it really is bothering you that much give me a call not him. I am at the church office everyday during the day. The number there is 432.1586.
Two invitations to meet personally have already been given and I’m throwing out the third right now. Anyone who wants to sit down and discuss this with me or Jon are more than welcome. We love our community and we love all of you guys, even if you don’t agree with our recent marketing efforts. But don’t let this bother you too much because we are planning to take down the posters tomorrow. And in a week, everyone will forget about this and we will all go on living our lives. The signs obviously served their purpose. I must note though that we will never do it again. Also, the yard signs and the sheets are at houses in which people who attend our church live at. So those are legally posted.
Once again sorry to cause such a stir with the people who posted on this site. You are very important to us and we have considered all of your words, whether harsh or supportive.
Aaron
Thank you for your heartfelt apology and for understanding our concerns in the first place. I’m glad at least that this could serve as an example to other organizations who may now think twice before litter-marketing and using unwitting citizens in propaganda. Thank you for cleaning up the mess.
Wait, where did everyone go? Am I correct in assuming that august 15 was the actual last time that anyone has posted on this “discussion?” Ironically enough, that’s the same day that I personally drove around this city with the pastor of Aletheia and took the controversial signs down…there would appear to be nothing more to talk about.. so how about I write a response and give everyone something to rip apart, quote, bash, and use out of context. (kidding)
1. as I was taking these signs down I noticed numerous other “campaign” articles up on the very light posts that I placed our posters. One of which was a very attractive poster for a reggae show. So I thought to myself, “surely my reggae friends are getting bashed right now!” but to my distress, I have been unable to locate any such animosity. So I’m left to assume that we have been the attention primarily for the fact that we are a church. Which leads right into my second thought..
2. I don’t recall seeing any discussion board type talk about the mysterious posters that were nothing more than some symbol on a black background. However, as soon as we put the posters up that had a website, and the city learned that it was a church putting the posters up, that’s when the “discussions” started. I’m not surprised by this, but I do think it’s worth mentioning.
3. as for the legality behind putting posters up, I personally talked with a gentleman that works for the city of Harrisonburg and he informed me that it was ok, as long as we take them down within thirty days. This would mean that my actions in taping up an innocent piece of paper, regardless of what it says, are justified. Perhaps the city should properly educate its workers on what can or can’t be done. And I will say, that my brother is a Harrisonburg policeman, and he informed me after noticing our signs that it was in fact illegal. Our response? The very next day we drove around the city for an hour taking our posters down. We don’t think we’re above the law. We were just misinformed.
4. when one of our creative team members (a sweet pregnant woman) informed me of this pretty sweet idea to grab the community’s attention I immediately thought, “Awesome! What a great way to trick people, cheaply gather attention, and get them into our church to beg for money!!” wait, no. I thought, “Awesome! What a great way to grab the community’s attention and create a new way to get a chance to tell them about God and Jesus Christ!!” I told my parents that if only one person responds to all of this crazyness and hears the message of Jesus Christ, then this whole bit was worth it.
I’m not a writer, clearly. So please don’t critique my misspellings and horrible grammar. What I am is nothing more than a broken individual that has been set straight because of Jesus Christ. And I will spend the rest of my life using any means necessary to tell anyone and everyone that God is real, and that there is nothing we can do to ever perfect or connect ourselves with Him. God, in His mercy, came to us and created the only way to have a relationship with Him, His son, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. And the Bible is clear that the only way to get connected with Him is by an honest understanding and apologetic attitude toward the things that we do wrong, a desire to change, and believing in what Jesus Christ did for us. This doesn’t mean that I will attempt to be “shady” and use illegal means, heck no. I’m just gonna continue to love everyone the same way that God has loved me. So again, I’m sorry for any and every bit of our “campaign” that was illegal or just not acceptable.
like it was said before, if anyone wants to meet with me, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email- speedyclax@gmail.com i’ll buy your lunch, what a deal!
Well, I can only speak for myself Speedy. It had NOTHING to do with the fact that this was from a church. Obviously, on first look, none of us could have known what these signs were for.
The fact it was a church may have ruffled some feathers, but it didn’t bother me any more or less than if Mattress King had been behind it.
To be honest, when I first saw the yard signs, I figured it was an art student’s summer project. I think it was the sense of being tricked that rubbed some the wrong way — in the video and with the flyer campaign. You think it’s one thing, and it turns out to be something different.
I didn’t comment on the “the signs obviously served their purpose” qualification in the previous apologies but this latest post is further evidence that your group doesn’t really understand why people were upset. First of all, I’m sure if a concert promoter staged a campaign of this style and size, including hanging concert posters in the windows of stores in Harrisonburg Crossing, there would be an equally vocal response. While illegal, those far fewer Reggae concert posters were hung simply to publicize a show(s) in a straightforward manner. Your campaign was clearly designed to provoke a reaction, create a buzz (however you want to put it) by plastering the community with amiguous imagery. That was what you intended and what happened, as your spokespeople have conceded. So don’t start playing the victim card now. Legality aside, it was another level of marketing than hanging a few concert posters. If every business, church or organization started doing this, the town would constantly look exponentially trashier than campaign season. So, yes, when people found out that a presumably responsible organization like a church was behind these “mysterious posters” there was a reaction. Once again, as you planned. And yes, there was an emotional reaction to your campaign beyond just the legality. To put it in terms you can understand: how would you feel if some neo-pagan Goddess worshipers blanketed the town with illegally posted signs, hung up posters in the windows of your businesses without asking permission and interviewed people coming out of your church for a promotional video for the Earth Goddess without telling them what was up? I gaurentee there would be at least as loud an objection.
So other than being your logo, what is it? Do the three blocks have any signifinance? The three blocls don’t seem explained and don’t seem to have a meaning, unless I missed it. At least ebay explained what “it” was.
The true issue, as I said above and i’ll reiterate it here now chunking my own comment:
“This church can’t use their own parishioners in their add they need to go out and find cool young people to bolster their appeal. I would be irate if I found myself in an add like this. I seriously doubt the person behind the camera was up front about his/her purpose.”
…the issue I raised was the blatant trickery used to make your promotional video. it speaks volumes about your religion. the viral marketing campaign of flyering was primarily annoying because you went sooo wild with the posters.
Also, the poster on reservoir and east market was surely up for more than 30 days for those who want to continue to go into the legality issue – which i don’t particularly care about. ‘speedy’ asserted everything was down in 30 days, yet that one was up for a long time in advance of the full campaign.
The question of gays ‘del’ raised hasn’t been answered in any of the church’s leadership’s posts. any comments?
Speaking of church leadership – does anyone who called Kurt want to share their experience? Has anyone called him?
Also, do you really think anyone doesn’t know about jesus!? There is a church on every corner – I believe the post above by ‘tim’ correctly pins you as ‘another church jocking for position’ whether you want to believe it or not.
Can’t there be some sort of late stage christianity? Since every corner of the world has already been colonized can’t you can stop focusing on outreach and just try to make the world a better place???
But it’s about spreading the good word Mike. That is making the world a better place. No I kid.
Speedy, you missed the point and started the thread all over again. Respect our right as citizens of this city to not deal with your litter. Why are you trying to re-hash this discussion, why do you not respect our previous comments and explanations (do you disagree with anything we said)? Also please don’t try and act oppressed. Churches are some of the most privileged forms of organization in our society/governmental setup. Kinda like the old liberal media claim.
My thought is instead of coming in and playing the “We’re getting picked on” card and getting very, very defensive, please stop and really stop and listen to what people are saying, and think about why they were concerned. There are some very legitimate concerns, and I think that, given your church’s name involves “community” you truly need to listen to how the *community*, at large, perceived your campaign and methods. Perception, as they say, is reality.
It’s easy to assume that anyone who had complaints is anti-Christian or anti-Church, but that simply isn’t true. There are some of us here who are Christians, regularly attend church, understand your intentions, but simply think that you went about things the wrong way, and need to understand WHY people are upset to truly learn from this experience. We also think that if you’re going to go out and represent your faith and Christ, you need to try to be above reproach in your methods.
This isn’t said in judgment, or hate, but in wanting you to understand why people were put off.
LEARN from the past instead of getting defensive and making excuses. All getting defensive does is make things worse and makes any apologies ring hollow.
Barnabas — this explains it, though you have to poke around on their web site a bit to find it.
It makes me sick when people try to make it sound like “The Church” is so oppressed. I knew that instead of responding to that resentful, defensive post I should wait for more reasonable folks to say what I was thinking.
Thanks to all the respectful posters who took the time to try (again) to explain the situation, instead of taking speedy’s invitation to more hostility. If you ask me the whole situation was resolved and apologies issued to anyone who was bothered. You do not do your cause any service by stirring things up again.
I have actually found it to be rather interesting to see the reactions to this ad campaign that used a “hook” or a “trick” to attempt to engage an audience.
I am a Realtor, and a member of the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR), and a year or so ago VAR launched an internal ad campaign (directed to its members) with somewhat of a “trick” as well. The goal of the campaign was/is to reinforce to Realtors that acting ethically is a good business decision. The campaign’s hook was a slimy character named Ted Truitt who was promoting his highly questionable (unethical) sales systems. The hook worked in terms of engaging Virginia Realtors and getting the real message of the campaign in front of them, BUT there was some degree of distaste for the campaign, I believe because people felt “tricked” by the campaign.
So….after all of that….two thoughts….
1) Does an example come to mind for anyone of an ad campaign that “tricked” the intended audience that didn’t have some segment of that audience feeling offended? Given this local example, and VAR’s example, I’m wondering if some of that response is inevitable.
2) There were certainly quite a few people commenting here that they had “issues” with this church’s ad campaign — and the sum of the comments at least once seemed to be attributed to the “community at large”. First off — the only reactions we’re getting here would seem to be from hburgnews readers — and despite how widely read this blog has become, its reader base still may not be a very true representation of the Harrisonburg community at large. Second — I would guess that less than 10 percent (maybe less than 5 percent?) of blog readers actually leave comments, so I’m wondering whether the comments here are even all representative of the public’s feelings about this ad campaign. Maybe we should take an anonymous poll? :)
Do you realize as we are typing these critique of a local church BOTH major party candidates for president intend to continue Bush’s failed ‘faith based initiatives”? Obama even wants to expand it! I’m sure this church applied to be exempt from taxation – what if they applied for FEDERAL money to educate children… through emo songs about jesus!?! I was hoping this election cycle would bring to an end the recent outcropping of hokey churches, then came Obama’s faith based initiatives speech in early July. Boo! I’m sick of hearing about the poor churches getting picked on. Its been 7 years of an evangelical president feeding money and legitimacy to these people and here we have a micro example of why we should stop and the type of behavior we can expect from them if we continue.
From Aaron Proffitt’s blog:
That’s a sharply different take on the campaign from what’s been posted here.
I wonder if they were critics wondering why Aletheia was littering!? :)
That is pretty interesting, though — apparently the campaign did accomplish its intended result, even though there were some critics of the method.
Regarding Finnegan’s comment on the blog: I’ve watched the religious right carefully over quite a few years. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to have one statement which is aimed at the general public and another that is intended only for the faithful.
And whether this campaign accomplished its goal or not is irrelevant. This marketing strategy can only be effective if everyone else is following the law. If other businesss and organizations started doing this the town would be covered in trash, this sort of campaign would be ineffectual and the “community at large” would without doubt have a negative reaction.
Ditto to Brooke’s last comment. Well said.
Scott, just to share my two cents… I wasn’t bothered by the church engaging me as a member of the intended audience with the mysterious 3 blocks. When I found out what it was, I went to the website and decided it wasn’t for me.
However, what bothered me was how this group of individuals conducted their interviews for their video. It appears they didn’t tell the interviewees what the recording was going to be used for or that it was going to be used publicly at all. (They should have informed the interviewees at the end, and even better gotten a signed waiver to protect themselves.) To me, it was the interviewees that were “tricked”.
I was bothered secondly by the sheer number of fliers posted around town, which inevitably turns to litter (unintentionally) and I was bothered by the posting of some fliers on private property without permission (see Annie Holobobs comment above).
Lastly, I appreciate Aaron’s sincere apology and I wish that “speedy” didn’t try to stir things up again… See Brooke’s comments again who summarized by feelings also well. Thanks.
I agree that it might not have made sense to conduct the interviews in this way.
I agree with this, in theory, though I haven’t seen the flyers laying in gutters anywhere. Maybe Public Works has been picking them up to quickly? :)
Yeah — that certainly made it a pain for the stores or other places where it was posted.
Agreed, however there are quite a few “legal” marketing strategies that would be equally annoying if lots of businesses and organizations starting using them….
– neon blinking signs (like at the Kroger shopping center)
– billowing columns of colored fabric (like at Spring PCS by Harrisonburg Crossings)
– large stand up banners (like the “Hot Rolls To Go” banners at O’Charleys
– large inflatable dinosaurs or other animals (like at the car dealership on 33E)
Speaking of which, unless there’s been a recent change in regulation that I didn’t hear about all these new flashing neon signs around town are in violation of the city’s sign ordinance. But that’s a different subject.
Wow! I am a business man from San Diego Ca. A friend sent me this link today to check out this “controversy” in the beautiful city of Harisonburg. I have been there many times and I love the people. Though I did not see any of the signs because I live in another state, I am suprised at how big of a deal this has become. People are irritated, angry, upset, frustrated, sorry etc. The pastor himself bloged an appology…
Look, this is just cleaver marketing. I can understand that some people are not ok with this kind of marketing. But this world revolves around ads and marketing. I am very curious to check out Aletheia Church. They seem to have a deep care for the commuinity and are not affraid to ruffel feathers in order to spread the “Good News”. I seem to recall another man who ruffelled feathers about 2000 years ago.
To Aletheia Church, Pastor Aaron and Pastor Jon:
Nice work. Keep it up. Your style, though unorthodox to the people of that town, would work great here in Cali. It gives me some good ideas.
Cheers,
Josh
1. After the (much appreciated) apology, things settled down, and then one of the members came back, made a bunch of excuses and stirred things up again.
2. If all this was was unorthodox methods, then there’d be no reason to apologize, and clearly the pastor Aaron felt the need to apologize. I think he, as well as others, realized there’s unorthodox, and “outside the box” and then there’s breaking the law and being inconsiderate (putting posters where they weren’t wanted, and including people in a church promotional video without them knowing that’s what it was used for)
Those that come here and continue to bring it all back up and make excuses and slap the hands of those who brought up *legitimate* concerns and questions, really end up nullifying Aaron’s very sweet, heartfelt apology, because, basically, what *you* guys are coming in here and saying is that we’re just big bad people picking on poor Alethia who did absolutely nothing wrong and were just trying to spread the good news.
How are we supposed to believe it when Aaron tells us you guys have learned from the mistakes, if the rest of you keep coming in here DEFENDING the mistakes? Apparently Aaron is the only one who learned anything from this experience, which doesn’t exactly reassure me.
mikekeane – thanks for posting those youtube clips. That church looks awesome.
“Your style, though unorthodox to the people of that town, would work great here in Cali. It gives me some good ideas.”
To sell what? Religion, or general liability insurance?
“They seem to have a deep care for the commuinity and are not affraid to ruffel feathers in order to spread the “Good News”.”
Isn’t that what Colbert had to say about Bush and Co.?
You know, when this first came up I felt like I tried to give the group the benefit of the doubt because they are a church. Then once I found out which church, I tried even harder because I already had some feelings about this church from some friends. But, I’d rather not judge a church I’ve never been to. Then Aaron came on and gave an apology and I felt good because I really felt like we gave constructive criticism and I know that the church was just trying to share the good word.
Now, I’m of the impression that like all churches there are good and not so good members, but that my initial feelings might have been right.
If I said anything to offend the members of this church then I am sorry. The video was good, the idea was good, but the execution was poor. I’ve learned a lot from this campaign though and I’ll pass it on in my church. I hope this didn’t get you down and that you don’t feel like we all came down on you.
I also hope I didn’t offend the apparently very delicate pregnant woman.
>I seem to recall another man who ruffelled feathers about 2000 years ago.<
Once again, substitute “Muhammad” for “Jesus” in this equation and imagine what the response would have been to this clever marketing.
Hey again H’burg residents,
I’m the pastor of this church. I issued an apology (not for actually posting the signs but for hurting those few people who have commented on this site). Are we still talking about this? The signs have all been removed. If we missed one tell me and I will personally remove it.
And again, for the fourth time, the invitation stands. I am serious about meeting up with any one of you for some lunch. I’m buying. You guys are coming to conclusions about something that you know nothing about. I am willing to answer any questions that you have in person, face to face…Which is always the best way to go about something like this.
“Are we still talking about this?”
Yes. We had stopped talking about it as of the 15th and then someone from your church came back and started talking about it again. So yes, I guess we are still talking about it. I’m glad the signs are gone. Thanks for taking them down.
>I’m the pastor of this church. I issued an apology (not for actually posting the signs<
In other words you don’t apologize for posting the signs.
In otherwords no one from the church came to this thread after about half way through to discuss anything. My sentiment is this, if you apologize then fine, if you don’t then fine. This dude from *Cali *can bug off because he’s full of bs. Deception is also a tool of the devil you may remember ;) This topic is pretty thin now. We’ve got well intentioned citizens trying to protect the city they love from illegal and stupid marketing/littering and then there is a church that wanted to gain paritioners and stepped over the line. Then they apologized and we thanked them for hearing our concerns then they recanted their apologies then we got pissed again. Everybody happy now? Did I miss anything?
The dude from Cali is still around. You don’t own the website David Miller. This isn’t David Miller news.
You don’t say.
No really, you didn’t add anything substantial. Did you mean to? I really don’t want to fight with a fella who lives in California and only came to the blog to defend a friend or family members church’s irresponsible actions. I really don’t care about this subject any more and I really don’t care about your opinion since you’ve already chosen to ignore every opinion expressed on this thread besides your own.
Look David, I’m not trying to fight either. I gave my opinion, you gave yours and I think this thing is done. Whether the actions of the church were irresponsible or not… It depends on who you ask.
Since there has been a lot of lunch offers, I’ll throw one out there too. I’d love to buy you lunch next time you’re in Southern California and we can talk about marketing vs. Littering or “what’s it like to have actual 4 seasons in a year” or whatever. joshgumbert@gmail.com is where you can find me to claim your lunch card. Do you like Sushi?
Josh
Thank you for the offer. If I travel to Southern California anytime soon I’ll certainly take you up on your offer. Yes, I do love sushi. Thanks
Great. I know a really good place.
There are still signs up at Harrisonburg Crossing on posts, the bus shelter and light posts in the parking lot, and I saw a few on 33 eastbound across from Martin’s yesterday, 8/21.
I would rather read the ‘Daily Dave Miller’ than posts from this church, or anyone trying to sell me religion. Go Dave.
There is also still, as of Monday afternoon, a sign at entrance to the Food Lion shopping center on 42.
Annie and Brooke, thanks for being on sign patrol.
MAN, imagine if someone trying to get elected did this kind of sign damage…at a church.
Love ya guys!
LOL. I’m not on patrol. I just needed to make a last minute stop at the Food Dog to get something for a picnic at a park with the kidlets, noticed the sign, and thought to myself, “Wait, I thought they said they moved all of these?”
Annie, I drove all over Harrisonburg crossing. I took the bus stop sign down and somebody else took down the signs at the intersection last night. I didn’t however see any of the signs on light posts in the parking lot. Could you direct me to the vicinity where those are at? Thanks!
Brooke, I guess you were referring to the yard sign in front of the old Hardee’s? That will hopefully be down today.
Like I said, if you see any, let me know. You guys are really on top of this. Thanks.
Yeah, that was the one. I’m not really trying to be on top of anything. I just noticed it, that’s all. :-)
“Daily Dave Miller”
David, I think you know what you now must do.
C’mon guys. Let’s beat this dead horse to 100. Just one more comment…
Brent,
Come now. It’s not about numbers.
Sincerely,
Weekly Joe Fitzgerald