1. A brief analysis of social media advertising techniques employed to promote Ford, Mello Yello, Grey Poupon, and Sephora emphasized the value and power of those ads on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. The article, entitled “4 Examples of How Corporate America Is Crushing Social Media,” argued that those four products were effectively marketed online by presenting interesting content that readers would be inclined to share with their social networks.
a. Do those corporate advertising campaigns diminish the quality of your social media experience? Explain.
b. Do we need a social media “zone” free of corporate advertising messages? Explain.
2. In 1980 Ted Peters, an associate professor of systematic theology at the Pacific Lutheran Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, asked:
How will the advancing postindustrial culture influence the course of religion? It is my forecast that religion will become increasingly treated as a consumer item. Because our economy produces so much wealth, we are free to consume and consume beyond the point of satisfaction. There is a limit to what we can consume in the way of material goods—new homes, new cars, new electronic gadgets, new brands of beer, new restaurants, and so on. So we go beyond material wants to consume new personal experiences—such as broader travel, exotic vacations, continuing education, exciting conventions, psychotherapy, and sky diving.
What will come next and is already on the horizon is the consumption of spiritual experiences—personal growth cults, drug- induced ecstasy, world- traveling gurus, training in mystical meditation to make you feel better, etc. Once aware of this trend, religious entrepreneurs and mainline denominations alike will take to pandering their wares, advertising how much spiritual realities “can do to you.” It will be subtle, and it will be cloaked in the noble language of personal growth, but nevertheless the pressure will be on to treat religious experience as a commodity for consumption.
a. Is Peters’s forecast coming true? Explain.
b. Is marketing necessary to the survival and growth of religion? Explain.
3. In your opinion, which of the following will be the biggest threat to America in the future: big government, big labor, or big business?