The Revd Barry Drake M.A. is minister of the Netherfield United Reformed Church
Please - don't skip this article because you don't know anything about advertising. You know a great deal about it. You've watched hours and hours of it on the T.V. You've read pages of it in newspapers and magazines, and you've seen hundreds of notices and posters - and you know exactly how you react to it! You are an expert. Now please read on.
Just imagine for a moment that you are asked to prepare an advertising campaign. The product is genuine - you've tried it - you know it is really wonderful. You also know that it is something that every person in the world really needs. You have met people who say they don't need it - but you are well aware of the wonderful things it has done for you, and for others that you know who have tried it. And it is affordable by all.
Now to the problem areas that our campaign will need to address.
There is only one manufacturer. Over the years, a number of packagers have come into being. Each one claims that their product is the only one that can be used with any effect. Each one mixes in their own additives, and sells the product through a number of dedicated outlets. In this country especially, some of the outlets try to make the claim that the product sold by their particular outlet is the only pure form. This is especially true of those who are known to mix further additives in with the product. Some of these additives are so overpowering that it is difficult to use the end product, and it has been suggested that some of the more harmful additives render the end product useless. In recent years, the product is being imported from the Far East and from the continent of India. Some of the UK marketing agents tried to call for a total ban on the Asian imports, and they, together with the UK branches of a certain European agent have suggested that the Asian varieties do not work. Experience suggests otherwise, but the Asian agents have not translated the labels or the instructions. This makes their version of the product unsuited to people who were educated in the UK.
It is the negative effect of all of this that has brought the entire product into disrepute, and caused many people to try and manage without using the product at all.
It is possible to source the product straight from the original maker. As you might expect, this is frowned upon by all of the regular packagers, and their various outlets - but it seems possible that the unadulterated product, without its packaging and additives may be better than any of the popular versions.
The only manufacturer is God - and the product, in its unadulterated form, is also God. If you have got any ideas at all for resolving the above problems in our current campaign, please tell us so that we may get this campaign under way as all our attempts so far have been vetoed by one or more of the packagers.