Jesus saves – but not this ad
Posted on 01. May, 2007 by Jonathan Cherry in Advertising
Oh dear – more handbags are flying, this time because of this billboard in Rivonia Road, Johannesburg. [thanks to Marc Ashwell for the pic]
According to the Business Day, the South African Advertising Standards Authority has received ‘a lot of complaints’ from religious groups who are outraged by the ‘Jesus saves. So does DOC-IT’ ad.
Guerilla Marketing, the company behind the
controversial campaign, has defended the advertisement, saying that
"the parallel between Jesus the Saviour and DOC-IT the saviour is done
in the utmost respectful manner".The company said the idea was that DOC-IT provided a substantial financial "saving" for companies that used it.
Yeah? Whatever. But here’s the cracker…
Desiree Gullan, creative director at Guerilla
Marketing, further defended the campaign, saying the billboard proved
that Jesus really did save.
Huh?
"After all, He
saved a small business from being unknown to one that is busy following
up on sales enquiries and negotiating contracts both in SA and our
neighbouring countries such as Botswana," she said.
After all of this fancy shockvertising – we’re still not sure what Doc-It does and the company is running a real risk of being more well known for their questionable advertising than for the service they deliver.
5 Responses to “Jesus saves – but not this ad”
Leave a Reply
Cherryflava Projects
Live Talkshow
David Chen
01. May, 2007
Great post. One question this brings up is “is there such thing as bad PR?” For example, the Aqua Team Hunger Force disaster in Boston, MA cost the company $2 million or so:
http://slashdot.org/articles/07/01/31/2314214.shtml
However, I guarantee you that millions more people know what Aqua Teen Hunger Force is today. And even though it’s associated with that bad event, people will still have the brand on their minds.
Paul Jacobson
01. May, 2007
I actually saw this one in Sandton a while ago and while I get a kick out of risque ads, this one is pretty bold for various reasons.
Juan-Michael
02. May, 2007
These guys gotta watch out. The christian community are getting very protective over Jesus, God, the holy trintiy and all the rest. They just gotta be careful not to do things like this, or the christians would pounce on them before they evm able to start selling anything.
Cherryflava
02. May, 2007
I’d agree that Doc-It got great exposure through their bold use of this particular example of shockvertising, but that doesn’t mean they improved their immediate sales or positively affected their future business prospects.
I have now heard of Doc-It, but I still don’t know – or care – about what they do as a business.
William Dicks
16. May, 2007
I find ads such as this very distasteful. The kind of saving that DOC-IT claims to do simply cannot be compared to the saving that Jesus does! Therefore, to equate the two in the ads simply amounts to mockery.