Reinventing Retro

Austin radio stations tend to be presumptuous. They fight for listeners in one of the most progressive music scenes in the country. That being said, audacious statements are meant to provoke and evoke dialogue, so I did not find it odd that while driving to work this question was posed: “is Michael Bublé the Frank Sinatra of our generation?”

Doubtful.

How could a 36-year-old son of a fisherman rival the musical genius of the Frank Sinatra? I will admit that his jazz/swing style instantly puts Bublé in the same realm as Sinatra. Borrowing songs such as Come Fly With Me straight from the man himself would invite a little bit of comparison as well. But, really?

The question presents more than just a musical critique. It shows society’s tendency to reach into its past in order to define its present. Look at fashion for example. Skinny, spandex-like jeans or “jeggings” were a part of every 80’s girl’s closet as much as they are in 2011. Do you men really believe that your plaid button-down flannel shirts or the solid color v-neck that you are wearing is original?

Advertising is not immune to this either. Retro fonts and faded backgrounds have been popping up in ads from Coca-Cola®[1] to Banana Republic®.[2] The sense of nostalgia is exactly what these companies want you to have. They want your trust. They want you to identify with some tiny fragment of a memory in your mind. To be honest, they want your money.

Churches do not operate in a different world, although I can see how some might think that. They follow cultural trends too. In the past few years there has a been a shift to try and “go back” to a biblical model of doing church. The Acts 29 organization is proof of this. They send out their pastors to plant churches after undergoing a rigorous training program in an attempt to grow churches that model the principles that the apostle Paul teaches about in the book of Acts [3] Likewise, satellite campuses, church planting and home churches have seen a steady increase in popularity, just like they did in first century A.D.

So lets roll with it. As advertisers, we get so hung up on the idea of being new and innovative that we devalue the work of those who came before us. As my grandfather would have told us, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In case you were wondering, pastors, the bible is as relevant today as it was while being written. That goes for the church as well. History has done a great job of molding Christianity into what it is today, but it has also given a lot of data to draw from.

I once took a class entitled History of Christianity. The professor was known for his essay style tests that called for days of studying every single line of notes you could scrounge up. After four months, we learned that when in doubt the best answer was to write the opposite of whatever came right before an event. You see, like many things in culture, Christian trends operate on a pendulum. As Sir Isaac Newton pointed out, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” In the church’s case, personalization is the response to the emergence of the megachurch.

In James B. Twitchell’s book Branded Nation, he writes about how the Episcopal Church was synonymous with power and prestige in the 1950’s. “More presidents of the United States in the twentieth century were Episcopalians than any other denomination.”[4] That seems a far cry from President Obama’s diverse religious background. Twitchell discusses how the church has been branded in America in a chapter entitled “One Market Under God.”

Bublé, Cola-Cola® and Twitchell are on to something. They recognize that retro is the new black. If anyone has a leg up on the competition, it would be the Church. It has been building its brand since before the dawn of time, literally. It made black what it is today. Church advertisers need to acknowledge this fact and run with it. Build on the oldest brand on record. Reinvent retro by making your Facebook® page look rugged. Marry modern convenience with foundational truth. Maybe even play a little Michael Bublé to get you into a Frank Sinatra mood.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y-7Eq9Eof8

[2] http://www.hooversbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/brad.bmp

[3] http://www.acts29network.org/about/doctrine/

[4] James B. Twitchell, Branded Nation (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2004), 59.

YouTube Video: MichaelBubleTV. (2009). Michael bublé – “feeling good” official music video [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edwsf-8F3sI