THE CURRENT FADING OF BRAND NAME "THE WATCHTOWER" & THE RISE, RISE, RISE OF JW.ORG
The Watchtower as brand name is in the process of being imperceptibly faded from visibility in the organization. Who'd have thought you could make a Watchtower fade and disappear? Is there no viable historic places act that will protect it? Sadly, no.
There are 2 main reasons for this imperceptible fading from view:
(1) As a brand "The Watchtower" has far too much smelly baggage. The Watchtower has been repeatedly and shamefully linked to innumerable hypocritical doctrinal, policy and behavioral problems within the organization for most of its more than 130 years (The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society was incorporated as a legal body in the United States in the 1870s);
2) Current commonplace secular definitions of - and connotations about - what "Watchtowers" are revolve around structures to monitor inmates and prevent escapes. By contrast, in Chuck Russell's day, Watchtowers were important protective structures, built to provide visibility to see beyond your fortress so you could courageously prepare yourself for approaching danger from the outside. You so needed a watchtower to see what was happening outside your fortress. Nowadays, that has changed: Watchtowers monitor what is happening within your fortress with the commonest use in penitentiaries.
For a religious organization that is acutely aware of the value of impression management, The Watchtower as a structure to secure imprisonment is definitely not the kind of image the organization wishes to be associated with. Yet, ironically, some would argue this modern-day definition is precisely what the organization has become!
In little more than 130 years, this cumbersome, shameful organization, known by its legally incorporated name, The Watchtower Society, has progressed from visionary herald of wondrous things to come to a place of imprisonment for its tired and dejected inmates.
JW.ORG, by contrast, is at the cutting edge of a newly re-configured organization, bristling to be promoted as bright, shiny, relevant and potent - even as its seminal doctrine - 1914 - becomes more of an embarassment as it fades into the distance. Having a 100th anniversary might pack a celebratory punch - but it also unsettles talk of urgency. As when we celebrate birthdays in our older years, it suggests mortality knocking and the need for thrilling distractions.
Enter the brand spanking new world of Jehovah's Witnesses: Internet slicked, pulsing with technology.
Take a good wistful look at The Watchtower brand and remember: Whilst all eyes were on the end of the world, what you are witnessing is, not the world's end, but the end of the Watchtower brand.
Be charitable and swallow your pride. Say a big "Hi" to JW.ORG. The new branding won't forestall the growing irrelevance of this peculiar 1800s American millenialist affliction; but it will provide distraction for the masses who need to do something other than drum their tired fingers as they wait, wait, wait for an end to a system that never ever comes.
