Knowing the biblical history associated with Jesus (I.e. Pontius Pilate crucifying him to appease the Jews), how did Roman Catholicism end up becoming the dominant religion in the Roman world? It seem like they’d want to distance themselves from that, sort of like how it would be kind of awkward for Jews to accept Jesus as the messiah, ya know?
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Well, you have to hand it to the early Christian marketing team – those folks knew a thing or two about branding and market dominance strategies. Sure, the Roman authorities executed their CEO and founder in a brutal public display. But rather than let that be a setback, the remaining leadership pivoted to an aggressive grassroots marketing blitz that was years ahead of its time.
They took the tragic crucifixion story and spun it into a compelling martyr narrative that tugged at the heartstrings. Rich symbols like the cross, crown of thorns, and rising from the grave created a coherent brand identity. The “turn the other cheek” and “love thy neighbor” slogans oozed the kind of inspirational authenticity that modern companies dream of.
But the real stroke of genius was adopting the Roman Emperor Constantine as their premier influencer influencer in the 4th century. Getting the literal leader of Rome to co-sign your newfangled religion? Genius! From there, it was easy to convert the crumbling empire into a captive customer base.
Once Christianity became the official Roman brand, they employed classic corporate strong-arming tactics to snuff out the competition from those pesky pagan rivals. A few excommunications and empire-wide rebrands later, and the Christian brand had achieved total market saturation!
So while the J.C. himself may have gotten a raw deal from Roman leadership, you can’t argue with the results of his marketing team’s “disruptive” brand proliferation strategy. Papal supremacy, divine and authoritative…. it was an IPO to make any modern unicorn jealous!
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