Saturday was Judgment Day. At least according to Christian radio mogul Harold Camping, who has blasted the airwaves with this prediction since 2009. A few months ago, billboards also started showing up, even in our area. “The Bible guarantees it!” they proclaimed of the return of Jesus Christ on May 21st – apparently at 6 p.m. However, no time zone was mentioned, which made it a bit of a gamble as to when it was appropriate to don a nice suit and prepare to be judged.
Now, one should never poke fun at religion, so as outlandish as Camping’s claims may have seemed, I’m not going to waste space here by dishing out crude jokes. That’s been done by plenty of pundits, comedians and journalists alike.
But I really hope that the numerous PR companies and PR reps based in Beverly Hills are paying attention. I hope they spent the very tranquil and almost overly normal Saturday in BH listening to all the people who had the Harold Camping prediction on their lips.
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I traveled from Beverly Hills to Berkeley, Calif. on Judgment Day for a meeting (Yes, I got on a plane—my fellow passengers didn’t seem to be worried either.) Walking amongst the students who filled the still hippie-ish Telegraph Ave., I listened to a din of sentences like “Well, see you tomorrow…maybe!” and “What if Australia gets it first?” and “I’ve been on Twitter all day, and everyone is tweeting about Judgment Day.”
The young students, hardly the core target audience for Camping’s radio show, were all abuzz about The End of the World. And Camping didn’t even advertise up there. Instead, his message had gone viral in one of the target demos advertisers and communication experts usually try the hardest to reach.
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It seems outrageous that messages travel with ease inside Generation Y. Camping’s billboards and ads looked like they were put together by someone doing design on a 2005 PC with Windows XP and an antiquated version of Photoshop. He hardly used social media. Yet he was able to get his message to the hipster kids anyway.
It just goes to show that good, old-fashion mythology, capable storytelling and a message with an edge will get through, no matter what the medium is. If it resonates, it travels.
