1 easy way to understand culture.

A few days ago, I had the chance to connect with the guys over at churchmarketingsucks.com. If you’ve never checked out that site, it’s worth a visit. One of the things we talked about was how people can get better at understanding culture.

I think there are a million ways to develop a better cultural awareness and I’m certainly not an expert. But I did learn one thing a few years ago that forever changed the way I look at culture. And it’s simple. Here it is:

I study advertising.

Instead of dismissing it as noise and clutter, though it often is, I study advertising because it’s the clearest, most direct look into our culture. Why do I think that? For a few reasons.

1. Advertisers spend millions of dollars on research.

You, me, churches, we don’t have the money to do a 100 person focus group. We don’t have the time to build detailed case studies and a usability lab with a reverse mirror. We can’t run tests and experiment with different messaging. But advertisers can. And they do. So when you see an ad, what you’re seeing is the reflection of the very best thinking in what people really care about. It’s a great way to understand where the hearts and minds of the nation are.

2. I write action, not art.

I love art, but to be honest, that’s not what I try to create. I try to create action. I want what I write to be a wick in a stick of dynamite, a catalyst that starts something new. I fail at it most of the time, but that’s what I attempt. Advertising is the same way. It’s not designed to just entertain. It’s designed to inspire to change, to get you to change your mind or your actions. And you can learn a lot about the issues and ideas that are encouraging action by studying advertising.

3. It reveals trends.

A few years ago, North Point (Andy Stanley’s church) hired me to help come up with some ideas for the Married group. At the time, eBay had a new campaign called “IT.” Instead of telling you about the millions of items they had on their site, eBay essentially said, “Whatever your IT is, we have it. Tell us what IT is and we’ll help you find it.” Then I saw an ad for VW where they measured trunk space not in cubic feet, but in “you.” They didn’t show a kayak or a football or camping gear, they simply showed an empty car and said, “this car fits 100 cubic feet of ‘you.’” Both of these ads represented what companies have known for a while, the power has shifted. Twenty years ago, companies could tell consumers, “Here are the three products you can choose from. Buy these.” Now, thanks to the Internet and globalization, consumers have the power. They get to make the choice. And companies had to customize what they offered. Same with churches. The “one size fits all” approach stopped working years ago. You can see this with the development of different types of services. Gone are the days of “you’ll sing hymns and you’ll like them.” Now, churches are doing a better job to listen and react to the changing needs of the communities they serve. The core still stays the same. The core message of Christ remains forever unchanged, but we’re learning how to reach people in new ways.

Ultimately, the best way to understand people is to actually interact with people. Imagine that. And it’s easy to dismiss church marketing as something gross and manipulative. I understand that, in part because I don’t like church marketing. I like smart evangelism. If I was going to be thoughtful and deliberate about sharing Christ with a neighbor, I would want to do the same with a brochure I created to reach my entire neighborhood.

My favorite way to study marketing and therefore culture is the “One Show” annual. Like a high school yearbook, the One Show is an annual collection of the best ads from around the world. I bought the latest one yesterday and if there was one book I’d give to everyone who wanted to understand culture it would be that one. It’s brilliant, creative and fun. (Click here to check one out.)

That’s my thought on understanding culture.