Practicing what we preach : using pop culture

SamsonLooks like it’s superhero day.
If you’ve followed this blog or chatted with me at all, you know I’m not a fan of simply ripping off the latest TV show and calling that creative church. You also should know that I’m all about being inspired by pop culture and the creative inputs we run into all the time. Since I don’t believe it’s effective (or clever) to simply grab (24, iPod, Desperate Housewives) and turn it into a sermon brand I typically steer away from diving head first into pop culture as a sermon idea.

But when one of the churches we work with was coming up with a series on Samson and wanted to really show his amazing strength (1000 men with a jawbone) we ended up with a great brand inspired by “The Hulk”.

When we first went down this path, I was cautious. But through working with our designer to continually focus on what we were trying to communicate and understanding our inspiration…the results is a great example of taking inspiration and not stealing an idea.

When bringing pop culture into your marketing, please do it carefully and with originality. It is not the easiest path, but doing so will give you something great.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm and is filed under series highlight . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Thanks Matt. I knew we were walking that line so it was definitely a challenge to make sure we leaned towards delicious. In fact the first rendition had the background in green...and that had to go, but once we went to red and brought in some texture we were definitely on our way. When our designer added the jawbone...that was the tipping point and that, combined with his hair, really strengthens the design.
  • It just nearly walks the line betweeen cheesy and delicious (like stuffed-crust pizza?) - but Samson's flowing hair really locks this in. Awesome.
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