Friday 7 January 2011

Sorry but this is cra... not very good

Apologies for the intemperate language but this is the new video produced by the Archbishops Council to introduce the Church of England. I am struggling to find one redeeming feature in the video. The music, words and most of the images reaffirm every stereotype of the Church of England. Who dreamt this up, who is it aimed at and who thought this would in any way make the church seem living, vibrant and attractive? And they spelt Church wrong in the opening few seconds!

The only good thing to say about it is that most people will have fallen asleep after the first minute.



Contrast with this rather irreverent but enjoyable video. Now why couldn’t the Church of England have come up with something like this?



h/t Frsimon and Changing Worship

Update: The Church of England video has now been pulled, I guess in response to the adverse reaction via social media. Thanks also to Mark Russell a member of Archbishops Council who took swift action.

Further Update: The video is up again without the spelling mistake but nothing else has changed, it's as bad as ever!

15 comments:

Alastair said...

Arghhhhh, the music was a bad choice, images dire, the information (such as it was) completely baffling and useless. I have not seen anything this bad for a while (and I have recently watched the hamsterdance on YouTube!).

See your foot? Ready? Take aim, fire.... well done C of E.....

Simon Robinson said...

The opening spelling mistake sets the tone.

Kathryn said...

Is it REAL??????????? That's just ghastly. How can we make it go away?

Sue D said...

Agree this is dire. Very amateur. I wonder what market they thought they were aiming at - it demands a high level of literacy - 'episcopal' ' 'synod' etc - seems really aimed more at existing long-established churchgoers (those with time to spare like me getting over flu). The music reminded me of when you are put on hold on the phone. It really needs to go...

maggi said...

utterly dreadful! it's just meaningless statistics with static images. Doesn't say anything except "the church doesn't know what it's for, let alone what it's doing".
(oh yeah, and "church can't proof read)

sadbuttrue said...

Totally agree - the spelling mistake at the start totally sets the tone! Who is it aimed at - the MTV-generation, I don't think so? I can see people flocking to their parish churches this Sunday after they've watched this… ;)

James Lee said...

Awful indeed. The music is twee in the extreme and very repetitive.
Can't figure out who it's aimed at - maybe local councils to show them how churches are nice fluffy community centres and VERY non-threatening, with lots of 'social capital'? Oh dear.
Worst of all is that (if I remember correctly, and please don't make me watch it again to check) it doesn't mention God or Jesus once.
Clearly creative and engaging media isn't much of a priority in the leadership of the 'Chuch' of England.

sadbuttrue said...

Is it just me, or has it been pulled?

Alastair said...

It has disappeared.... do you think someone somewhere has been reading the huge variety of adverse comments???

Philip Ritchie said...

Thanks everyone for your responses both here and via other social media. The fact that the video has been pulled, at least for the time being, demonstrates the importance of these networks.

ThreeMinuteTheologian said...

How very disappointing, not getting to see it! I could do with a very low baseline at the beginning of a New Year!

Charlie said...

Boo, got here too late to see it. Anyone got a pirated copy lying about?

Chandy said...

It's back up. probably should contact them directly

Lesley said...

Weirdly, I have a copy on my laptop - I played with it a year or so ago. I found it tweeted by one of the tweeting bishops. It didn't have any music, so I put it in movie maker and added Robbie William's 'Bodies' as the sound track, and doubled the speed, to see if it improved it... it didn't!!

Tim Chesterton said...

I made it through about two and a half minutes - long enough to wonder what any of this has to do with Jesus and his gospel!!!