The latest Johnny Cash album was released July 4. Part of the marketing involves the MySpace page over here.

As a lifelong Cash fan, I’m happy to see that there have been more than 2.3 million plays of the songs posted on the page. It’s a little weird to see that Johnny has “104850 billion friends” on MySpace and to read a posting by “June Carter,” but the comments people have posted about Johnny and his music (6,331 as I write this) are, for the most part, flattering and on the mark.

All this from simply posting a few streaming songs and a notice of the release date. Not too shabby.

Yahoo News reports this week about XXXchurch, a ministry that … well, if you really want to know the details, check out the FAQ on their site. Here’s a taste:

“What is your mission? Our mission is to make people aware of all the issues about porn and for Christians to be accountable and to get their crap cleaned up. We also want to help and give hope to those who feel like there is no way out and are drowning in porn.”

“Why don’t you have more Bible stuff or have it be more Christian? We have Bible studies and sermons that you can listen to and a prayer wall where you can post prayers. However, we refuse to have this be your typical Christian crap website with crosses and bibles all over the place and communicating things that most in the world can’t relate to. Just the truth communicated in a no-nonsense way.”

Communicating a message in a no-nonsense way that people can relate to — isn’t that what marketing is all about?

Let’s make no mistake about it: XXXchurch (or X3church, if you’re worried about accessing their site at work) is marketing religion using sex. They’re also using a tone of voice that’s enormously accessible — especially, and not insignificantly, to kids. They’re anti-porn, but they’re confronting the issue head-on with an honest and realistic point of view.

For too many years, marketing God (which is exactly what’s happening here) has been the province of oily televangelists, raising images of blue-haired widows sending away their meager pension dollars to fatten the wallets of huckster millionaires. These guys over at XXXchurch have a very (very!) different approach. They also have a DVD: “Missionary Positions: Their Faith Is Hardcore.”

That’s a title almost as likely to grab a kid’s attention as the latest Paris Hilton video.

From the Fun With Internet Serendipity file …

When I Googled “Independence Day” it wasn’t much of a surprise that the movie that made Will Smith a big-screen superstar came up number one in the organic results.

It was kind of nice to see the first page of search results showing this page. It’s mainly a bunch of links to complete versions of historic documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution. The Founding Fathers, being Web newbies, would probably enjoy the spinning .gifs, though I wonder what they would think of the “fart button” banner ad.

As for the Google ads: How does “Look Sexy Naked” fit in with the rest? Does “rare Chinese slimming tea” have something to do with why Declaration author Thomas Jefferson was known as “the man of the people”? And why, when I Google “Chinese slimming tea,” do I not see an ad for patriotic collectibles?

Happy Fourth!

I’m a little late reporting this, but DMNews published a report a couple of weeks back from a New England Direct Marketing Association conference. I like this bit:

“MarketingSherpa president Anne Holland also spoke about the reemergence of the importance of copywriting in her morning keynote presentation. For example, online retailers such as Amazon.com and Vermont Teddy Bear told MarketingSherpa in a survey that copywriting had a bigger impact on response rates than video, 3D, zoom and other technologies, during testing.”

Takeaway for marketers: Copy counts. Trust professionals with your words.

PayPerPost is a new service that tries to match advertisers with bloggers. When bloggers write about a product, they get paid.

From the “How It Works” page: “Advertisers will post all sorts of Opportunities, from a simple ‘link back to this site’ to product reviews with pictures. Each Opportunity will have different compensation based on the advertiser. It’s up to you to pick the Opportunities that best suit you. If it doesn’t feel right, if you don’t own the product, or if you can’t be honest we ask you to pass on the Opportunity.”

This whole system doesn’t feel right, and I have to agree with Rafe Needleman over on C|Net: It’s a bad thing, for all the reasons Rafe articulates. And from the marketer’s side? Wise up: The “voice” you’re paying for is anything but the authentic buzz you’re looking to generate.

Blogging should be about disseminating information and expressing opinion, not pimping one’s self out for a few pennies.

Of course, one smart programmer creating one good bot can probably game this system pretty well. I’m no engineer, but it seems like this has the potential to elevate splogging to a whole new level.

Takeaway for marketers: Bad idea. Resist the temptation. Stay away.