Interest-thing Sharing 23rd May '07

Hah! Not only the hills have eyes, the sky have eyes also.

Yesterday I took part in my first Interesthing Sharing since guest-starring last month. Yeah, the time I unveiled the super-duper-brilliant way of folding a flower from a ringgit note.

The others didn't like it.

Yesterday was a different story though! I won, muahahaha, beginning what I predict will be the longest streak in the history of CC+J.

Shared on this fiction book 'Godless' by Pete Hautman. It's about this disoriented teen Jason Bock who creates his own 'customised religion', after tiring of the Catholic faith forced on him since young.

Using the logic that water is the provider of all life, he convinces his friends to worship the town water tower, or the Ten-Legged God as they call it. However, things spiral out of control when his disciples start getting even more obsessed with the hokey religion than him, culminating in a dangerous midnight mass on top of the tower where things go horribly wrong. Like it or not, Jason has to control the religion he invented before its power grows out of control.

Sounds interesting? You bet! Here's an excerpt which really took hold of me:

"So, you ask, how can Jason Bock be serious about a religion that worships a false god?

Are you kidding?

You ever watch a football game and get totally into it? Why? It's not a real battle. It's just a game somebody made up. So how can you take it seriously? Or, you ever see a movie that made your heart about jump out of your chest? Or one that made you cry? Why? It wasn't real. You ever look at a photo of food that made your mouth water? Why? You can't eat the picture.

Ah, you say, but the food that the picture shows is real. Is it really? Maybe that tasty-looking apple is made of wax. Maybe that loaf of bread is plastic. Maybe the football game is fixed. Maybe the movie is nothing but computer-generated pixels. So it's not as if the picture shows you reality. What you see is somebody's idea of reality.

Same thing with water towers and God. I don't have to be a believer to be serious about my religion."

How true, especially for us ad people! Too often we see the brand at just face value: the mechanical parts, the real parts. It doesn't always have to be real! People get enough of reality in their lives. They want something that entertains, moves, inspires, dances, laughs, loves, hurts. Even if it's 'somebody's idea of reality'.

Someone once mentioned that the biggest brands in the world aren't Coke or Starbucks. Nope, try religion. After all, these are the 'brands' that found their voices, inspired millions and stuck through the years.

Brand loyalty? Try brand worship, hehe.