{"id":3601,"date":"2024-04-24T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3601"},"modified":"2024-04-24T08:00:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T12:00:15","slug":"nothing-to-fear-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/nothing-to-fear-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing to Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

It\u2019s safe to say that many people find TV commercials annoying.

But they\u2019re also amazing. In the space of 30-60 seconds, a commercial has to deliver \u2013 clearly and memorably \u2013 two potentially life-altering messages. First, you are not happy.\u00a0 Second, happiness is just one purchase away.

A truly compelling ad might lead you to think, \u201cYesterday, I didn\u2019t even know this existed.\u00a0 Today, I can\u2019t live without it.\u201d\u00a0

It goes without saying that some of the brightest, most creative minds in our culture are working on those half-minute ads. And they are committed to snaring your attention with whatever it takes \u2013 a catchy slogan, a jingle you can\u2019t stop humming in the shower, an enthusiastic celebrity, or a talking gecko.\u00a0

One of most effective tools in the marketer\u2019s bag of tricks is something that began to appear in printed advertisements and billboards about a hundred years ago.

We\u2019re talking about fear.\u00a0 \u00a0

As social historian Bill Bryson details in his book Made in America<\/em>, one of the first captains of industry to recognize the power of consumer anxiety was King Gillette, the inventor of the safety razor. Gillette, whose image boldly peered out from his own ads, declared, \u201cWhen you use my razor you are exempt from the dangers that men often encounter who allow their faces to come into contact with brush, soap, and barbershop accessories used on other people.\u201d

For the first time, men began to contemplate the possibility that barbershops might be cesspools of disease.

Gillette razors (then and now) weren\u2019t cheap. In 1920 they retailed for $5.00, which was half a week\u2019s salary for most workers. But millions were sold. Gillette made a fortune.

Fear-based advertising soon became the rage. Bryson reports that magazine ads asked, \u201cWill your hair stand close inspection?\u201d And, \u201cWhen your guests are gone, are you sorry you ever invited them?\u201d (that is, because of your grave lack of social polish).\u00a0

Bryson writes, \u201cOne ad pictured a former golf champion, \u2018now only a wistful onlooker,\u2019 whose career had gone sour because he had neglected his teeth. Scott Tissues mounted a campaign showing a forlorn-looking businessman sitting on a park bench beneath the bold caption, \u2018A Serious Business Handicap \u2013 These Troubles That Come from Harsh Toilet Tissue.\u2019\u201d

American consumers began to worry about bad breath, iron-poor blood, and \u201cbody odor,\u201d a term invented in 1933 by the makers of Lifebuoy Soap.\u00a0

Anxiety quickly found its way into TV commercials, such as those famous Wisk ads in which a tortured housewife, despite her best efforts, can\u2019t seem to get her husband\u2019s shirts clean. She hears the mocking chorus, \u201cRing around the collar!\u201d No homemaker should feel such shame. It\u2019s worth noting that another possible solution to this problem might have been for her husband to wash his dirty neck.\u00a0

Human beings tend to be\u00a0racked by fears.\u00a0

Most of these fears have little\u00a0to do with physical survival, but arise from the perception that we are not truly happy, not complete, and desperately need just one more thing to feel secure.

We fear rejection and abandonment if we dare to send our kids back to school and they\u2019re not wearing the latest Target outfits. We anguish whether we\u2019ll ever have enough money to retire, so we had better call that Fidelity toll free number on the TV screen to talk to a financial counselor. We fear that we\u2019re missing out on the vacations our friends are enjoying, so we should seriously contemplate a Carnival Cruise.\u00a0

We dread that someone will see right through our happy act and realize we’re actually deeply\u00a0sad. We fear what tomorrow might bring. Political ads are so fear-based that we can forgiven for thinking that there may not even be<\/em> a tomorrow, courtesy of either the Left or the Right.\u00a0

Fear has been described as the \u201ccommon cold of the soul.\u201d It makes us feel miserable. It makes us wonder whether God cares. And it\u2019s highly contagious.\u00a0 \u00a0

The Bible isn\u2019t neutral about any of this.\u00a0

What command appears more frequently than any other on the pages of Scripture?\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d And what\u2019s the number one promise? \u201cI will be with you.\u201d As we\u2019re reminded every December, we \u2013 like Mary in the privacy of her home and the shepherds out in the fields at night \u2013 are assured by God\u2019s angels that we don\u2019t need to fear. God has sent Immanuel, God With Us<\/em>. The Bible\u2019s number one command and number one promise are tightly bound together every Christmas.\u00a0

In I John 4:18 we read, \u201cThere is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.\u201d God\u2019s perfect love \u2013 his unconditional gift of grace \u2013 drives out whatever makes us afraid.

Notice that John doesn\u2019t say, \u201cPerfect love negotiates with fear, or escorts fear to the door so maybe one day it will leave.\u201d No. God\u2019s love drives out<\/em> the great enemy of our souls.

Jesus reminds us that no matter what we happen to see or hear during the next 24 hours of TV commercials, we have nothing to fear.\u00a0

That\u2019s because if we have him, we already have everything we need<\/em>.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here It\u2019s safe to say that many people find TV commercials annoying. But they\u2019re also amazing. In the space of 30-60 seconds, a commercial has to deliver \u2013 clearly and memorably \u2013 two potentially life-altering messages. First, you are not happy.\u00a0 Second, happiness is just one purchase away. A truly compelling ad… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3603,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3601\/revisions\/3603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}