Blink advertising

Clear Channel did NOT invent the one second ad... I did...twelve years ago. When I was a sales rep for WTIK in Durham back in 1994 or so, I sold spots to a well meaning individual. Bless his darlin' heart, this young man wanted to do a work for the Lord. He came to the radio station wanting to put out a radio message to "get saved". He said that God told him that whomever he told to "get saved" would indeed do just that. He said that all he had to do was say, "get saved!", and they would automatically know how to do so and would. He went on to explain that God told him that he had the mission to lead X amount of people to Jesus and then the Lord would take him home.

This young man was "not the sharpest knife in the drawer", so to speak, but I sort of liked him despite his gullibility. I made up a schedule of ads for him and charged seventy five cents per play. He recorded a simple, one second cut of him shouting "Get Saved!" and we played it as scheduled. I even threw in a few extra, as I recall, just to make sure that he got his money's worth.

There were a few problems with his approach to the situation. First, the audience was probably already primarily Christian, since WTIK was a Christian station at the time. The message needed to be given to those who have never heard or received the gospel. Second, there was no direction as to HOW to get saved. How can they believe in someone in who they have not heard? If nobody tells them that JESUS is the way to salvation, how will they know?

I realize that God uses the foolish things to confound the wise, but I also know what the Bible says about the gospel. Anyway, I personally don't think that his "blink" ads were effective, nor his approach to evangelism. That is just a personal opinion. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

As I said, bless his darlin' heart. He really meant well. I hope he had success in some form. I still chuckle about selling those "blink" ads. I almost feel guilty about it, but he wanted give the message, so I invented the ad...NOT Clear Channel.