George P. Taubman Digital Archives

Use of Advertising

See Digital Images

"Perhaps the one thing that Taubman did best to bring about [his] success, other than his own magnetic peronality and persuasive teaching, was advertise. Taubman was a talented and creative advertizer and was constantly putting some form of card or flyer into the hands of the people of the church and the community to motivate them to participate. Slogans like "Of Course Your Coming" and "Yes Sir! Two Million!" and "Go After the Cow" are just a few of the many examples of creative, thought provoking ideas used by Taubman.

"One area of Taubman's program for the church has many examples still remaining to give us a picture of his skill as an adminiatrator. Taubman was a talented advertizer who used every available opportunity to get the word out to the church and the community. He used cards, flyers, handbills, and news articles as well as a constant word of mouth campaign to keep the information flowing.

"Examples of Taubman's advertizing skill are found from as early as 1909, and continue up through the end of his ministry in Long Beach. While the subjects and the places may have changed over the years, Taubman was consistent in the methods he used. And why not, they were always successful.

"Perhaps the most significant and often used advertizing tool for Taubman was the invitation card. He would use these small cards to invite people to just about any church activity from special holiday services to regular Sunday morning workship or the Lord's Supper. The very fact that he used this type of advertisement teaches us several things about Taubman as an administrator.

"First of all, these cards had to be handed out in person to people who were to be invited. This means that the people of the church had to be motivated to carry them out to the community and invite others to come. Often the cards were made up to be handed out for a same day event leaving little time for the task of going and invititing, yet the people did get them out, and people did attend the events being advertized.

"Second, many times the cards were used to advertize up-coming sermons series or special presentations. This type of card is found so often amon the collections, that we can only concluded that it was Taubman's habit to plan for these series of sermons far in advance so that he could do this advance advertizing. This kind of planning in itself is an indication of Taubman's administrative skill.

"Also, these cards were obviously professionally printed, and [sic] task which required both time and money. Clearly Taubman had gathered around himself capable people who could work quickly and had also prepared the church well for the expense of the ongoing cost of outreach through advertizing (1)."

(1) Kragenbrink, Kevin R. George P. Taubman: "Conservative Christian Church Evangelist and Champion of the Men's Bible Class Movement." Thesis (M.A.) Pepperdine University, 1991: p. 67-68.