So, I’ve watched the first Test Match of the current Ashes Series. (That’s Australia playing England in a five match series of five day cricket games, for the uninformed.) The match ended in high drama, but a draw. Yep, five days of play and neither side won. And not even a penalty shoot-out at the end to provide a victor. But I’m not writing about cricket today.
A feature of the broadcast were the advertisements for the beer Victoria Bitter. After every six ball over came another ad. Many for this product. Watching advertisements on television is an interesting exercise. If they bore you then you will change the channel. The advertisers and television stations do not want this to happen. Many times the advertisment is for a product of which there are many similar types, so the aim is for you to change from another brand to theirs.
Victoria Bitter is a very popular Australian beer with a very popular advertising campaign. The tagline of which after describing how a hard earned can be gained, stated: “Matter of fact, I’ve got one now.” No prizes for guessing how this hard earned thirst should be slaked. Here’s a youtube:
But times have changed. Victoria Bitter has had its alcoholic content changed from 4.9% to 4.8% in order to maintain a lower price because it attracts a lower government excise (tax). To accompany this change, the old tagline has gone and a new approach is being taken. These sorts of changes are not made lightly, particularly with products that lead their particular type and already have popular ads.
The change seems very noticable. Instead of picture of hard working, high achieving folks we now watch a parade which contains heroes for a new age. Groups march behind banners. Here are some of the titles: Guys Who Should Have Read The Instructions; The Meat Tray Winners; Men Who Won’t Eat Quiche; Guys Who Peaked In High School; People Who Dream Of Chucking It All In; People Who Chucked A Sickie To Be Here; and many others. There is even a website you can go to and register as identifying with one of these groups. Among all the ordinary men and women various celebrities from a number of fields are simply seen among the crowds or in the parade among the others. Look at the ad if you wish at the youtube site.
So now we are told it doesn’t matter who you are, VB is ‘The Drinking Beer’. The phrase is even trademarked, so they must like it.
It seems that this is the lowest common denominator, applied to an all encompassing degree. No-one misses out. I don’t miss out. One of the groups is ‘The Azzas’. This makes a reference to the Australian habit of referring to everyone named Barry, Sharon, Gary and Darrell as Bazza, Shazza, Gazza and Dazza. (In a weird meta-moment the ad is on the TV right this second.)
The transition in the appeal of the ads seems quite stark. Once you worked hard, earned a thirst and were rewarded with refreshment. Now it doesn’t matter if you’ve worked or not, whether your labour is of value, drink up anyway.
I’ve been striving to communicate a similar contrast at church in our recent sermons from Romans. You can find the outlines here in the blog.
The Apostle Paul is at pains to point out that God’s salvation is not something you can earn. It’s not something that you deserve. It is not something that a special class or group can get for themselves and everyone else is excluded.
Rather, he stresses the point that everyone needs the Gospel because we’re all under God’s judgment, but, praise God, salvation is available to all. God’s gospel is for all. To take a line from the beer ad, ‘it doesn’t matter what banner you march under’. Whether Jew or Gentile, it is the power of God for salvation. Maybe we could trademark that: ‘The Saving Power.’ To paraphrase the advertisers: ‘It doesn’t matter who you are, God’s Gospel, the saving power, that’s what it’s for humanity.’
We how deeply the society around us believes that we Christians reject them because they are not good enough. We need to to communicate God’s message of a salvation that is for all clearly, concisely, accurately and engagingly.
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