This year’s Churches Advertising Network, Christmas campaign moves into the virtual world of Second Life. Previous campaigns have been high impact and sometimes controversial. This one promises to be no different.
The general idea is to ask the question – “Want a second go at life?” There is a poster, a series of radio ads, a website and an island in Second Life. If you think this is all a bit crazy, they are not the first to venture into the virtual world of Second Life. LifeChurch.tv planted a church there a while ago, so that all those trying to escape real life, can’t escape church.
You can probably use the posters as stand alone, provided you have a target audience that actually knows what Second Life is. But while the whole concept is kind of innovative, I don’t think it has as wider appeal as previous campaigns. The empty pint glass last year would probably speak to just about everybody in our local pub. But Second Life – what’s that? Somewhere you can be virtually good?
I’ve been following the progress of Second Life for awhile now, and am really intrigued. I’d love to be part of it all, but (sadly) it requires more graphics hardware than my ancient Linux-powered Laptop will support.
From what I’ve read and seen about SL, it’s residents seem to have the typical “We like spirituality/Jesus, but we hate the church” kind of attitude that is prevalent in postmodern society.
It strikes me as similar to the early days of the U.S.A., when many of the “founding fathers” were (contrary to popular revisionist evangelical history) adamant about the separation of church and state, and wary of churches becoming part of the “establishment.”
Makes me wonder if SL is the New Frontier of our generation.