I saw one of the public service messages not that long ago a couple of times. The first time I saw it I thought it was one of the Mormon commercials. It was really late at night, my husband & I usually only watch T.V. at like 2 or 3 am. We were both laughing at the commercial it was something about loving families and his only contact with mine has been strained at best.
Why don't they preach on TV or Radio?
by JH 17 Replies latest jw friends
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Elsewhere
I must agree... think about it... They have six million people going around advertising for them for free, and not only that, they are also collecting money and sending it in to the WTS. TV commercials on the other had cost money and very few people send in money because they saw an ad on TV.
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jws
I seem to remember something about them having a radio show in Pennsylvania years and years ago, like 1930's maybe. Probably about the same time as those phongraphs.
Why don't they do radio/TV? Probably for the same reason they don't provide their supposedly "God-inspired" literature to the masses on the web. They've got a message to preach, but apparently want you to hear it from somebody face-to-face so that they can better manipulate you. You have to take several steps and be indoctrinated before you can set foot in a Kingdom Hall so that you don't go running when you hear the real doctrines. The stuff like only baptised JWs living, shunning practices, whether or not cell phones are for you, etc. That stuff just can't go out to the masses. The people would realize the brainwashing.
So it'd have to be basic stuff. The stuff they lure you in with, hope, better world, live forever, blah, blah, blah, without all the organizational stuff. But, you can bet if they were on TV, some JWs would feel they can just watch that instead of going to meetings or out preaching. No meeting attendance = no visit to the contribution box. No preaching = no selling of books. And with the toned down message for the masses, you don't get the controlling talks. That means they lose control of you.
Maybe, like their other media, they want to restrict it so that people can't record TV/radio shows and bring it back to haunt them.
Or maybe they did try it on test audiences and they all found it too boring and unintersting.
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coffee_black
They don't want to spend the money for tv or radio. My uncle was an announcer on their radio station way back. It was WBBR. It was a different era back then.
Today, the "preaching work" keeps the jws busy. It's a form of control. It keeps them feeling inadequate because they can never put in enough hours or produce enough results to measure up. No matter how ineffective it is, I think they will continue to demand this of their followers because it is a means to keep them in line, test their loyalty, and use up as much of their free time as possible. Makes the jws feel like they are part of something. It's a ready market for watchtowers and awakes. Not only do the individual jws have to have their personal copies, but they have to commit to a certain number of copies for placement, and they have to pay for them. Whether they are placed or not is irrelevant. The society gets their money.
Why pay for tv or radio? The purpose really isn't to save lives. It's to create revenue.
Coffee
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coffee_black
Oops... before someone says jws don't have to pay for the mags.... I know they don't pay a specific amount, but they are expected to donate for them, and turn in any donations they receive for the mags. Bottom line: the society gets their money.
Coffee
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willy_think
We all know that witnesses go door to door in order to give bible studies. But since their message is so important to them, why don't they use all the available methods in order to reach out to the most people possible.
Bethel is in the print publishing business.
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Stan Conroy
The money only flows in one direction.
Stan
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jws
Oops... before someone says jws don't have to pay for the mags.... I know they don't pay a specific amount, but they are expected to donate for them, and turn in any donations they receive for the mags. Bottom line: the society gets their money.
I think Randy Watters had something about this in one of his newsletters. The way I remember it, the congregation is billed for the literature, just not the individual publishers. If the publishers don't donate enough to cover the costs, the congregation takes a financial hit. If the don't pay up, the Society threatens to cut off literature shipments.
I think that's the sort of accounting mentality that almost drove the company I work for into the dirt with it's former ex-accountant CEO. Our old CEO wanted to cut out anything that didn't have a measurable benefit to the bottom line, ignoring the "getting your name out there" effects.
With the WTBTS, they don't do subscriptions anymore. They almost force congregations to cut back on their literature orders in fear of ordering too much that the publishers can't pay for. In turn smaller literature orders means they don't have leftovers to just leave around anymore. Literature becomes something you want to use very judiciously. It's a downward spiral that could severely limit their growth potential. I think that's good, but bad business sense for them.