Favorites

We all have different motivations and things that inspire us. I have many, just like you--great literature, a piece of beautiful music, delicious food... Funny as it may seem, I include great ad campaigns among these treasures (link to some of the best). Here are a few of my favorites:

• Got Milk?—you have all heard of this one. Check this out.
• I'm a Mormon by the Church—go to Youtube and search for "I'm a Mormon" or http://imamormon.org
• BYU student's Adlab campaign Scan Me—this one beat out their NYC- and LA-based agency competitors

Anyway, sorry. I got side tracked. These are really good and often funny. But when it comes to great slogans, Zions Bank's "We haven't forgotten who keeps us in business" is right up there with the best. When it first came out, Jeff and I were doing some marketing at the time. And I had one of those moments "Why didn't I think of that!?" It seemed to capture in a brief expression all the reasons why choosing the people at Zions Bank made sense, because they were really going to take care of you. 

You may remember it, but if you don't I'm not surprised. Because when they rolled out the campaign, the spokesperson stressed the wrong thing. They would say "we haven't FORGOTTEN who keeps us in business" or "we haven't forgotten who keeps US in business" or some other version, failing to stress the right thing..."WE haven't forgotten who keeps us in business." 

Instead of becoming one of the great advertising campaigns of recent memory, it fell flat and was at best forgettable.

What I learned from this experience is that it is important where you place your emphasis. Great things can be lost and forgotten when we misplace our focus. Mediocre and seemingly simple things become great when you emphasize what made them valuable in the first place. Ask every mother who has kept for years Mother's Day, birthday, and other cards and drawings given as gifts from their children. Great things are even better when you emphasize the right things.

And so it is with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is so much good, so much hope, so many opportunities to bless the lives of others if we will stress the right things. Maybe this was why the Epistle of James was Grandpa's favorite book among all of scripture.

"Pure religion and undefiled before the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

James 1:27

Service is the very definition of pure religion.

Stress the right things.