Amazing business idea! (Jesus)

[MisterLove]

Two recent things that got me thinking:

a) I gave a lesson on marketing in which I said that celebrities could be useful in promoting a product

b) I wanted to buy a Saint Benedict crucifix for my new apartment and I couldn't find it anywhere;

I find b) very disturbing. Where I live in, there are countless stores with all sorts of superstitious crap but not a single Catholic store in sight.

As for a) I'm sure you all agree that celebrities are a great marketing tool.

And if you had to choose the most famous, recognizable, empathic (i.e. bankable)celebrity of all time, the answer would most likely be... Jesus Christ.

So why not create a Jesus brand? Products (e.g. clothes) with the name and face of Jesus. Sure, it would raise controversy but we need more Jesus in our lives. Even churches sell religious items, so this is not exactly new.

The only problem is all proceedings would have to go to charity, or it would defeat its purpose.

[matty7]

watch the film DOGMA by Kevin Smith http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/ it had loads of stuff about selling Christ to the masses

[Bowyn Aerrow]

For the past 2000 years the Church and its subsidiaries have been selling the brand carefully to the masses. the last we need is new sales of that old product.

What we really need is a New Product, one designed for today's hectic, self absorbed sinner who needs instant salvation and can get it on the go with an App for That.

Jesus is pretechnology we need a Technological Messiah, one the masses can relate to.

[southbiochem]

Trying to be somewhat understanding here...(yes, much like Portugal, Chile is very Catholic, so I know how that goes)

but tell me something please...doesn't the bible, on good old Exodus, say:

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them"

Help me understand, then, why is it that Catholics like imagery so much, and worship saints and the virgin so much...

That's outright idolatry, by the second commandment.

Just the fact of having imagery of saints and things alike you are going against the orders of the God you're supposed to worship...

you can imagine how turning imagery into brands will even further fall into the "sin" category...

[Geminize]

"...stores with all sorts of superstitious crap but not a single Catholic store..."

In all honesty, I fail to see the difference.

[cardiganwearer]

The Catholic church has already created the Jesus brand and has been marketing it for many years. You make the mistake of thinking branding objects like clothes is the pinnacle of the marketing exercise.

The catholic church has already far surpassed anything like that, it's been marketing salvation for a couple of thousand years. The Vatican and all the wealth therein are the result of charging for salvation. I'm sure if they thought they'd have done better with tee shirts, that's what they would have been selling (there is a possibility they tried it and abandoned the idea, hence the Turin Shroud).

Martin Luther had a go at holding it back, but the bandwagon was too massive to stop, all he managed was schism.

Branding is powerful stuff, but in the final analysis the product is sometimes more important. It looks like eternal life beats tee shirts in this case.

[partis]

you want to use jesus as a marketing tool, to make money ? you talk about clothes well have u noticed theres lots of designs with crosses on around, regardless of the persons wearing it belief, if your aiming at a neutral market i dont think jesus face will be saleable

[Counselor]

Jesus Christ Brand Feminine Hygiene Products
Jesus Christ Brand Condoms
Jesus Christ Brand Anti-Diarrheal
Jesus Christ Brand Wart Remover
Jesus Christ Brand Peanut Butter
Jesus Christ Brand 50-pound Bag Senior Cat Food

[trialbyerror]

For the past 2000 years the Church and its subsidiaries have been selling the brand carefully to the masses. the last we need is new sales of that old product.

What we really need is a New Product, one designed for today's hectic, self absorbed sinner who needs instant salvation and can get it on the go with an App for That.

Jesus is pretechnology we need a Technological Messiah, one the masses can relate to.

GOOGLE? :biggrin:

[MisterLove]

[...] but tell me something please...doesn't the bible, on good old Exodus, say:

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them"
[...]

I have no idea what that passage means but I'm glad the Church didn't take it literally - it would have deprived us of some of the greatest artworks in the history of mankind.