Date posted: November 25, 2011
The Jerusalem Advertising Journal. 33Ad.
By Avram Ben Haim Chief Brand Strategist of the Haaretz Group.
Just over four weeks ago outside of Jerusalem the Roman authorities executed the man known as Jesus of Nazareth. There were no riots, no public uproar, even the majority of his followers stayed away from what was a humiliating end. However this was not just the death of another Messianic pretender, this was catastrophic public relations disaster of the highest order. Thus the purpose of this article is to learn from the mistakes that Jesus and his handlers made, mistakes which ruined one of our nation’s strongest brands.
In an already crowded market of Messianic pretenders, radical Rabbis and Elijah-esque wanna be prophets, Jesus had star power. His emergence around three years ago was like a shooting star in the night sky. There was something magic about him, a point of difference that agents, marketers, sponsors and brand managers like myself see only once in a lifetime.
I remember sitting in a focus group sponsored by the Jerusalem Times, and having to pick my jaw up off of the floor at the responses from the group. Never before had I seen such brand recognition, such identification with a public figure. He cut across the major demographic groups, even appealing to notoriously difficult market segments such as the Samaritans. When I heard the numbers that he was polling amongst the Goyim I knew that we had a sensation on our hands, marketing lighting in a bottle.
Jesus dodged some bad publicity and numbers in his home town to roar into the public’s consciousness like a modern day Maccabee. His message had cut through, amongst his audience could be found liberal Sadducees, socially conservative Pharisees and your run of the mill rural aspirationals. His association with the already strong brand of John the Baptist gave him a sense of authenticity that money cannot buy. A number of brilliantly conceived psuedo-events such as a giant public festival come picnic, some very public healings and his sermon on the mount moved him into top of the Messianic charts. No one appeared more ready, more able, more publicly positioned to usher in the Davidic Kingdom that the prophets had promised. Yet just as we were expecting to see the streets running with Roman blood, and Israel established at the centre of world government and trade, the Jesus brand turned into a car wreck.
The crowd screamed, grown men cried as Jesus headed towards the temple. Riding on the Davidic donkey was sheer genius. It was all going to happen, even this cynical old brand manager stood in the crowd that day felt goose bumps, but then the most public of meltdowns, a temper tantrum of the highest order. The turning of the tables, the yelling, the assault against the poor working people in the temple. Something had gone horribly wrong.
In fact something had been very wrong for a while. It was the usual cocktail, I have seen it countless times amongst those cast into the public glare. Of course everyone has heard the rumours of the parties and the drinking. Yet I believe that the real issue was a power struggle amongst Jesus’ advisors and media handlers. The sensible business acumen of Judas Iscariot seems to have been challenged by the weapon carrying thug Simon (who also goes by the alias Peter), the boy from the country seems to have preferred hometown hoodlums to the wiser, sensible heads. Like so many before him, Jesus seemed unable to handle the fame, the usual signs of mental illness were there, the isolating of himself, the running from the public, the constant talk of death. The morbid and restrictive demands put upon those following him. The last public polling of Jesus conducted just hours before his death produced numbers that were as painful as the execution he was just about to endure.
So the sordid affair ended with a heretic enduring a justified death. In the coming years Jesus will be forgotten, (apart from a small lunatic fringe who have already begun circulating rumours of ghostlike visions and appearances). The man I feel most sorry for most in this horrible saga is Judas Iscariot, who tragically took his own life. I believe that Jesus’ early success was attributable to his careful brand management, then regrettably the lunatics took over the asylum. Prayers and best wishes to his family, he was one of us.
So what can we learn as brand managers? If you want to learn how to massage fame, to position celebrity, to create a much loved brand, study what Jesus of Nazareth did and then do the opposite.