Marketing heaven

Easter is always a joyous feast. It is the celebration of the re-opening of the pearly gates of heaven, which were closed to human beings from the time Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden for flagrantly disobeying God. As the story we all know goes, Jesus Christ had to become a man and act in perfect obedience to the will of the Father to make up for our first parents’ sin to once again open the door to eternal life.

No one has really come out to describe with conviction and definitiveness what heaven really looks like. We have heard of near death experiences detailing heaven as a place where angels play sweet harp music, where dead relatives and friends reunite with a possible new entrant, and where everything is white and bright. And we have also come across children’s books and pieces of poetry portraying it as nirvana – rainbows exuding vibrant colors, exotic animals roaming around in perfect harmony, peaceful towns, bluish surroundings and people playing and laughing.

Everyone has a verbal and visual image of heaven. Most religions have, too, and they should all be respected. Anthony DeStefano, author of the best selling book A Travel Guide to Heaven presents a fascinating concept of the glorious domicile – painting it as a fun, dynamic, tangible abode of unlimited pleasure, unlimited happiness, and unlimited joy. He believes that one day after the resurrection, heaven is going to be physical as well as spiritual – where we are not just going to see spirits, but live human beings with warm bodies, faces, eyes, hair and voices. In other words we will dwell in a highly charged locale where we inhabit our current form, as we continue doing the good things we like to do.

Right In Our Own Backyard

"Heaven is like the Wizard of Oz," DeStefano avers. Dorothy thinks she’s going to find her true home "by following the yellow brick road." But what she learns is that the thing she’s looking for is right there in her own backyard. In the same way, part of heaven is going to exist someday, right here on good planet earth. "The Bible says there’s going to be a new earth, it doesn’t say there’s going to be something completely different. Our earth will be renewed, transformed and reborn. It will experience resurrection on the same way that human beings will be resurrected," the author elaborates. This is the main thesis of his book – that if the life we are living now is real, life in heaven is not going to be less real. If anything it’s going to be more real.

"Heaven," De Stefano continues, "will remove our compulsions and unhealthy desires." It will be a multi-colored paradise where we will experience new things – food, fashion and music and the like – never before featured on earth. Wow! Isn’t that great?

There will be no marriages in heaven, too, unburdening us with the worries attached to the institution and sacrament. "Just because marriage doesn’t exist in heaven doesn’t mean the relationship with our partners won’t continue forever," DeStefano emphasizes. He compares it to a game of tennis, and expounds:

"If you’re having a match with someone on the court, you’re called tennis partners. You dress a certain way, use specific kinds of equipment, play by certain rules, and stay with certain boundary lines. Once the game ends, however, you’re no longer tennis partners. But that doesn’t mean your relationship with the person ends. On the contrary, your relationship might be even deeper off the tennis court. The same is true for our relationship in heaven. God doesn’t destroy any of them."

Many years from now, our mom will still be our mom, and she’ll be able to say things only a mother can say. And many years from now, our brothers will still be our brothers, and the special union and friendship will continue on and on.

"In heaven we won’t rest in peace," DeStefano declares. Books will continue to be written, buildings and roads constructed, movies produced, and great arts performed. After all, he points out, "heaven will look exactly like or own neighborhoods closely watched by an energetic Lord, running about saving souls and raising the dead."

DeStefano asserts that he is neither a new age guru nor a TV psychic/palm reader/theologian nor philosopher. He confides that the completion of this book on an imaginary, whimsical trip to eternity was motivated by his strong belief in the afterlife coupled with his deep passion to examine the tenets of Christianity. This was bolstered by studies revealing that 94 percent of the general public believes in heaven. Newsweek even reported two years ago that 76 percent of Americans believe in it. The figure among Filipinos for sure will hit the roof as well.

A Marketing Pitch

Personally, I look at A Travel Guide to Heaven as a marketing pitch for our final destination. Very much like selling a visit to Disneyland – although some may dislike the parallel between a "sacred eternity" and a noisy, crowded, dizzying amusement park – it allows as to savor the beauty of heaven and why we should not miss the gratifying trip to it. And if I have to write a marketing communications brief to project its advantages and uniqueness, the document will read something like this.

• The product: Heaven

• Product positioning statement: A dynamic place for limitless joy

• Target public: All people in the world – believers, non-believers, converts from all socio-economic strata

• Communications objective: To strengthen awareness, reinforce preference, and heighten desire for heaven

• Consumer Promise: Life everlasting. Life with family and friends. Life without suffering. Life as a super-being in a super world. All these can be had if we would be consistently good to our fellowmen; forgive family members and anybody who have offended us; be in community with people to praise and serve the Lord; accept the passing away of a parent, a sibling or a friend with faith; grin and bear a period of unemployment, fight the way through depressing financial problems without losing hope and becoming bitter; face our own old age and death with bravery and even cheerfulness. Indeed, heaven is no place for arguments and grudges. It will be a paradise filled with love, forgiveness and reconciliation.

• Brand Essence: If heaven were a person, he would be the ever-present head of the family who exudes equal warmth, caring, love, and respect for his children. He stands for unassailable truth, unquestionable justice and genuine freedom.

• Tone of Advertising: Mystical, friendly and entertaining

• Tagline: Heaven waits for everyone.

• Executions: A 30-seconder TV commercial to be aired on primetime, a jingle-based radio spot singing praises to the world beyond, billboards on key messages for the flight plan, merchandising materials trumpeting the extreme desire to reach the ultimate journey’s end.

These are just this writer’s initial thoughts. Other suggestions – copy and visual ideas – are most welcome. If we are convinced that heaven exists, we must, as Disney’s four-pillared philosophy projects – dream, believe, dare and do. Adam and Eve are waiting.

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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net for comments, questions and suggestions. Thank you so much for your feedback.