This week, we take a look at church signs. With congregations declining, churches are using their signs as marketing tools to attract new members. And they’re using humour to do it.  We’ll look at the history of funny church signs, we’ll examine how effective they are, we’ll talk about some of the funniest ones we’ve seen, and a few epic church sign fails.

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One Sentence Sermons: The Wit of Church Signs

Under the Influence gives listeners a rare backstage pass into the hallways, boardrooms and recording studios of the ad industry.Join host and adman Terry O’Reilly for fascinating (and humorous) stories that connect the dots between pop culture, marketing and human nature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Take a walk down any busy main street, and you’ll probably see one of the oldest forms of advertising:   The sandwich board.   They have been around for over 200 years.   Cities try and ban them. Storekeepers love them.   They can make you smile. They can make you angry. They can attract a lot of attention.   They are the pop-up ads of the physical world.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ham on Wry: Sandwich Board Advertising

Customers often lie to companies in surveys, polls and focus groups.   Yet advertisers rely on that flawed and false feedback to market brands and create advertising campaigns.   So what are advertisers to do?   One solution is Google.   What we type into the Google search window is like a truth serum. We all pour our most intimate, honest questions into that search box. 
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Pants on Fire: When Customers Lie to Marketers

80% of all advertising is ignored.   That’s why some advertisers employ cheeky advertising.   It’s usually bold – outrageous – and sometimes even rude – but always with a playful undertone.   We’ll talk about a fruit company that printed an open letter to the Pope.   An airline campaign that told you to “keep it in your pants.”   And a product that claims your grandparents had more sex than you.  

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Cheeky Advertising

Most tourism marketing aims at the largest audience possible.   This week, we look at a sub-category aimed at the smallest audience possible:   Billionaire Tourism.   The super wealthy get bored easily.   That means luxury tour planners dream up extreme vacation ideas.   From outer space, to the bottom of the ocean, to secretly getting the key to the Sistine Chapel, it’s a whole new pricey world. 
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Billionaire Tourism

There are some time-honored honorifics in the world of marketing.   “Honorifics” are titles like Mr., Mrs., Doctor, Captain or Colonel.    Like Colonel Sanders, Dr. Scholl’s, Mr. Clean and Mrs. Butterworth’s.   They’re usually leaders in their category.   Is it because those products are the best?   Or – is it because those brand names give the products a sense of respect and authority? 
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One Sentence Sermons: The Wit of Church Signs

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