January 18, 2005
COMPETITION:
Ad for a Bible doesn't fit (Cathy Lynn Grossman, January 17, 2005, USA Today)
The nation's largest Bible publisher, rolling out its biggest marketing campaign ever to promote a new translation aimed at "spiritually intrigued 18- to 34-year-olds," has stumbled over a little rock: Rolling Stone.The magazine rejected Zondervan's Bible ad just weeks before its scheduled run date, citing an unwritten policy against accepting ads containing religious messages.
But every ad carries the slogan: "Timeless truth; Today's language" And that assertion of "truth" evidently triggered the rebuff from Rolling Stone.
Well, Rolling Stone probably should reject the ad - after all it is in direct conflict with their religion of Hedonism.... Posted by Bruce Cleaver at January 18, 2005 2:12 PM
If a man rolls a stone, it will fall back on him. - Proverbs 26:27
Posted by: Gideon at January 18, 2005 4:14 PMOdd--they probably don't question the claims any of their other advertisers make.
Posted by: fulmar at January 18, 2005 7:03 PMFulmar -
It would be interesting to see if old issues of RS contained ads for books/info on 'alternative' religions (New-Agey stuff, Wicca, who knows what else). Of course, these are less likely to threaten the bread-and-butter of RS: having a good time, period.
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at January 18, 2005 7:38 PM