Preaching and the Thirty-Second Commercial (Wesley Allen & Carrie La Ferle) - A Review

PREACHING AND THE THIRTY-SECOND COMMERCIAL: Lessons from Advertising for the Pulpit. By O. Wesley Allen, Jr. and Carrie La Ferle. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021. Viii + 145 pages.

                What lessons might preachers learn from advertising? And a thirty-second commercial at that? Being the son of a father who was in the advertising business (but he didn’t create thirty-second commercials as he was in a different branch of the business), who happens to be a preacher, I must admit I was a bit taken aback by the title. But the questions are appropriate. Could we learn something valuable, as preachers, from those who create thirty-second commercials According to the title of the book, preachers could learn something of value? But what?

                So, I can imagine that the title of the book Preaching and the Thirty-Second Commercial will be a bit jarring to many preachers. I’m assuming most of my colleagues don’t think of the two fields having much in common. For one thing, we preachers need more than thirty seconds to get our message out. Besides, advertising is often considered a "dirty business." That is because many ads are designed to entice us to purchase/consume things we might not need. As for preaching, do we not have something valuable to share that is not a consumable product.

                Despite any qualms that we might have with the idea that the two fields can work together for the good of the church and world, Wesley Allen and Carrie La Ferle wish to show us how they might work together. Preaching and the Thirty-Second Commercial is the first contribution to a new series from Westminster John Knox Press. As the title of the present book suggests, this book is part of the new "The 'Preaching And . . . ' Series." The series is edited by O. Wesley Allen, the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Allen, of course, is also co-author of this first contribution to the series. His co-author is Carrie La Ferle, who is the Marriott Endowed Professor of Ethics and Culture at the Temerlin Advertising Institute, Southern Methodist University. Thus, we have a book produced by a preaching professor teamed up with an advertising professor. 

                The authors acknowledge that, based on their fields, they appear to be strange bedfellows. For one thing, "advertising celebrates culture and promotes the values of commercialism and materialism." That doesn't seem to fit well with the Gospel, which is "often critical of and countercultural to and promotes values that challenge a materialistic worldview" (p. 1). While we have been hearing a lot lately about the need for "relevant" preaching, which can be culturally defined, that is not what the authors have in mind here.

                We need to begin the conversation by acknowledging that sermons are generally longer than thirty seconds and so the point here is not to reduce the time frame to less than a minute. The authors recognize that the medium used by the two fields is different. However, preachers live and work in a world defined by thirty-second commercials. It's not a matter of competition as much as learning how to communicate effectively in this environment. Perhaps if we know the challenges, we can learn from those who are experts in the field how to break through the noise and speak to the desired audience.

                Thus, the authors start by laying out the problem—the challenge of communicating the gospel in this new media-driven context (chapter 1). From there they show us how communication has changed over time. Here, in chapter two the authors refer to how advertisers have changed the way they deliver the message over time. One thing to remember here is that communication no longer is linear. Rather, it has become multi-directional so that different people hear messages in different ways. Effective communication requires that we understand those differing vantage points and find ways of addressing them.

                Since we hear/receive messages differently, and preachers want to get across their message, we might want to begin with "Understanding the Hearer," which is the title of chapter 3. In this chapter, the focus is on the audience. To understand the audience, we need to understand the nature of market segmentation, which includes but is more than mere demographics. There are questions about benefits, behavior, and more. The point here is that just like the audience of commercials, the church audience is segmented. The question for preachers concerns how we speak to these different segments in a coherent manner. One possible solution is the use of focus groups, as advertisers use them. As they explore these questions, they conclude the chapter with a sample sermon that draws together the concepts explored in the chapter. The same will be true of most of the rest of the chapters.

                Having looked at ways of understanding the audience of sermons, using guidance from the advertising industry, we move on to chapter four, which discusses sermon forms. They look at several possible forms to replace traditional ones, though they focus on one known as AIDA, which is an acronym of attention, interest, desire, and action. They write that preachers "would do well to learn from advertisers and shape sermons to grab attention, deepen interest, create desire, and call for action." (p. 72). Of course, this form that derives from advertising will need to be adapted to preaching. One way of doing this, they suggest, is to consider using Eugene Lowery's Loop.

                This more thematic form discussed in chapter 4 is one possibility, but the use of narrative is another possible form. In fact, they go together. The point here is the importance of using imagery and story. Once upon a time, story equaled illustration. You have a point to make, and you use an illustration to help get the point across. That is not what they have in mind. They note ways in which advertisers use stories to connect brands with people. Stories both catch attention and take one a journey. Some sermons, as we see can be composed largely of one story. They even provide a few exercises that will help preachers increase their creativity.

                The final chapter focuses on cumulative preaching. That is, looking at the way preaching communicates the gospel of time. Here they point to the way advertising campaigns build on themes and images that are laid out over time.  With advertising campaigns, advertisers work to draw attention to a core message through a variety of forms and mediums. Thus, one will encounter a brand from several directions, and in the end, will have a greater sense of understanding of the brand. The key is continuity without conformity. What is true for advertisers is true of preachers as well, as our sermons, whatever form they take, are cumulative. It is the continuity of message, without always doing the same thing, that communicates the core message of the gospel.

                So, here’s the big question: Can we learn from the advertising industry without embracing consumerism? It would seem that from if listen closely to what Allen and La Ferle share in Preaching and the Thirty-Second Commercial, then this is quite possible. I believe my fellow preachers will find this to be a most interesting and useful text, especially since the audience we seek to communicate with is ever-changing.