Annually a big non secular occasion happens on this nation. It’s a non secular occasion as a result of it brings individuals of all cultures collectively as one in a standard purpose that’s bigger than any single particular person. It includes prayer earlier than, throughout and generally after the occasion and requires ardour, sacrifice, trial and finally jubilation.
The occasion is the Tremendous Bowl, witnessed by 112.3 million individuals final yr or extra true believers than Christian church attendees (out of about 332 million People 64% determine as Christians and 47% of these declare to have attended church a minimum of as soon as per week. When you do the arithmetic, that quantities to about 100 million churchgoing Christian People, or over 10% much less than the adherents of the faith of Tremendous Bowl.)
And the Tremendous Bowl, like all nice communal non secular expertise, consists of a feast (tailgating on the stadium, or buffalo wings and munchies across the TV) and a celebration—the half-time present. Faith is baked into each facet of the sport. The pre-game group prayer for victory—practically a 3rd of People imagine that God has a hand within the end result, in any case—the finger pointed upward in thanksgiving after a landing; the fan, caught on digicam on the sport’s second of reality, standing transfixed, eyes closed, arms clasped, lips murmuring a silent plea to the Almighty. And naturally essentially the most ennobling and transfiguring leap of religion within the sport—the “Hail Mary”—named after the Holy Virgin.
Like every nice faith Tremendous Bowl has its traditions. One cherished customized is the Tremendous Bowl industrial. That is the one occasion of the yr when individuals really sit up for the commercials. They keep glued to the TV and watch their favourite film stars—usually parodying their iconic roles—promote mushy drinks or cellphones. These commercials are of the very best high quality, with very good manufacturing values and why not? With a possible viewers of 112.3 million-plus, it’s a no brainer. So it’s no shock that religions, too, select to advertise their messages throughout this most-watched tv occasion of the yr.
Tremendous Bowl LVII witnessed two religions roll out the crimson carpet. The one—Christianity—in an effort to revive flagging curiosity and attendance. The opposite—Scientology—to kindle much more curiosity as its numbers proceed to go up.
Two faiths—one historic, the opposite new; one dropping momentum, the opposite gaining—are utilizing time-tested rules of selling to air their message on a worldwide platform: the Tremendous Bowl.
The He Will get Us marketing campaign which aired two commercials in the course of the Sunday sport was the brainchild of a perceived must re-brand the Savior in an effort to separate Him from sure followers who, per market analysis, have forged a destructive shadow on Christianity and by affiliation with Jesus. Those that are soiling the model embody evangelical leaders who preserve that culture-war politics supersedes such Christian staples as loving kindness, forgiveness and integrity.
The advertisements observe the positioning of the marketing campaign in inserting Jesus in a contemporary context. One focuses on how youngsters categorical the Redeemer’s love, whereas the opposite offers with anger, and the way Jesus dealt with it otherwise. Every advert ends with the tagline, “He Will get Us.”
The Scientology advert, titled, “You Can Reside Once more,” options an authentic tune, “Reside Once more.”
A voice-over narrator guides us by way of photos of despair—a shopkeeper staring on the ruins of his vandalized retailer; a baby wandering by way of the particles of a burned-out forest; a girl gazing at a shattered mirror; a pissed off architect at a clean drafting board. “When you assume that each one is misplaced, that each dream has pale, that the final mild of hope is gone,” the voice tells us, “assume once more.” Because the music swells and the shadows vanish into mild, the voice continues. “It’s there inside you, one thing that may by no means die,” because the shopkeeper’s retailer miraculously turns into complete once more and the kid with a contact brings a flower into bloom.
The resurrection of useless issues continues because the voice says, “The ability to rise once more, to create, to stay once more.” The shattered bits of glass coalesce, the architect begins to sketch, and as he does so his drawing manifests itself in the actual world: a fantastic metropolis skyline seems after which transfigures right into a multicolored murals by way of a baby’s chalk road portray that rises and spreads itself like a tapestry by way of the once-drab city scene. The pictures of renewed life and hope are interspersed with a short glimpse of a Scientology counseling session using the church’s pastoral artifact, the E-Meter. “As a result of nothing is extra highly effective than you,” the voice concludes.
And, similar to the He Will get Us advert, the Scientology message, too, leaves us with a remaining thought: the tagline, “Curious?”
The analogy of sports activities to Life isn’t a brand new concept—competitors, talent, striving, the essential mistake, the fortunate break, the insufferable suspense, the incomparable pleasure of victory, the inconsolable anguish of defeat. And underpinning all of it and making the wrestle worthwhile are the ineffable, elusive and sacred parts: hope and religion. Small marvel that two world religions would use the primary stage of a mighty sporting occasion to supply their religious wares to a world in dire want of them.