KEYWORDS: month, city, posters, end, time, back

Poster Plans

David Berg

—Millions for the Billions! DO 1877 11/84

1. WE'RE REALLY GOING IN FOR THESE POSTERS & I THINK THEY'RE REALLY GOING TO GO! Don't you think you could sell'm? Don't you think you could make'm go? You've all been out there—don't you think the people will go for'm? Well, whether they do or not we're going to try to get'm out anyhow‚ because they've got the Message! All we can do is try!—And they're going to be as completely non-identified as possible. Some people might recognise'm, but not by name anyway!

2. AS FAR AS I KNOW, WE'RE NOT GOING TO GET OUT THE SINGLES NOW FOR MAYBE SOME MONTHS, BUT ALL THINGS CHANGE BUT JESUS, & if in the field you find out that the singles go better with the new enlarged kids' texts on the back, we may need'm sooner! It all depends on how these first ones go. You could maybe start screaming for them again next month! These first four are supposed to be gone & in the mail by the end of November, & we hope, despite the Christmas rush, that at least the air mail samples will get there before Christmas for your Christmas presents! The quantities that are going by surface mail from the three Centers won't make it for another month or two, but in the meantime you've got the black-&-whites you can use if you want to. Then when you finally get enough of the others you can really wow'm with those, God willing! So really pray for it all—the production, the producers, the distributors & the works!

3. I ALREADY TOLD YOU WHAT I'M THINKING ABOUT FOR THE NEXT BATCH OF FOUR, THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT WE NEVER KNOW HOW SOON YOU MAY THINK YOU NEED'M! These may go so fast you're going to be hollering for more, & we want to give you as much variety as possible. In this first batch, each of the three Centers are rolling all four of them & all 100,000 of them this month.—Except maybe South America because they have to translate it. But India's going to use it in English & they're just waiting for the separations & they can roll! And since WS is paying for it there shouldn't be any problem. Sprint is getting multiple copies of the separations made & will shoot'm off to the various Centers just as soon as they're done.

4. WE'RE SPREADING OUT THE MAILING A LITTLE BIT SO THE WHOLE COST DOESN'T HIT US ALL AT ONCE‚ otherwise the entire cost for the whole works & the mailing & all if we sent them all out would be phenomenal! So we're trying to spread out the postage, which is about half the total cost. We can't spread out the printing, it's got to be done all at once‚ but we can spread out the mailing. Savvy? So although each Center is printing all 100,000 of them this month or next month, we're only going to send out a total of 100‚000 of four different kinds, 25‚000 of each, & we will have a total of 100,000 to mail out again for the following three months if they don't use'm up too fast. Each Center will send out 25,000 in November, 25,000 in December, 25,000 in January & 25,000 in February, God willing!—If we're still here & the Crash hasn't come & the mail system holds out!

5. BUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY GO SO FAST THAT YOU'RE SCREAMING FOR THE BALANCE, YOUR NEXT 25,000, EARLY? What if they go so fast at Christmastime that you say, "We've already run out of our 25,000 & we want more right away!" What I'm trying to say is if they go real fast we'll need to send you the balance of posters we have on hand earlier instead of spacing them out at the rate of 25‚000 of each every month for the next three months. You got me? So what if they do go faster than we expect?—Even faster than all this first four? That means we may have to have the next four ready earlier than we think, so it may be later than we think! Savvy? That's why I'm telling you about the next four, just in case, & I think in your spare time—at least, when you're not busy with something that has higher priority—you ought to be kind of thinking about it & working on it.

6. AS I THINK I EXPLAINED TO YOU BEFORE, ONE OF THE NEXT FOUR WILL BE THE SINGLE CITY PICTURE, WHICH IS GORGEOUS BY ITSELF! Just move the main title & the subtitle over to the left of the City line. Sad to say we'll have to wipe out a few of those Mansions that are right on the same level there, & we have to drop the right end of the picture. Sorry about that, but we didn't know we were ever going to do what we're doing now! So there's something to think about & that'll be one of the next four. When I say "First Four" & "Next Four" I hope you know what I'm talking about. D.V., another of the next four will be the Revelation of the End Poster! We've already got that in colour, & if we can't find the originals we'll shoot a colour print. That's colour on the front & black–&-white on the back. Then the next ones that already have a backing done are the two calenders.

7. AND DON'T FORGET TO HAVE APOLLOS WRITE A NEW TEXT IN CHILDREN'S LANGUAGE FOR THE BACK OF THE CITY POSTER IN LARGE PRINT. And because it's horizontal, it should be in horizontal columns on the back, the same as the front, so that if they stuck it in a window they could read the back too! I love those narrow columns! They're a lot easier to read & a lot better & I think it's better that way too, & that's what we're going to do on all the texts from now on. If they're horizontal we'll have four horizontal columns on the back of the horizontal poster, & on vertical posters we'll have three vertical columns. In other words, it'll read the same way they look at the poster. Be sure that you lay'm out that way from now on because that's the way I think they need to be!

8. THE BACKING FOR THE CITY WILL NEED TO BE FOUR COLUMNS OF BIG PRINT IN KIDS' LANGUAGE, REAL SIMPLE! And because it's got the City in detail there, I want to emphasise the stats, measurements, colours, materials, sizes, height‚ length, breadth, form, everything that's specific in the original account in Revelation 21 & 22! Really emphasise the City!—Not the whole Heaven deal that we've been describing before & after & all the rest, but just emphasise what kids would find real thrilling & interesting about the City & its measurements & its tremendous height & size & how much territory it would cover & all that sort of thing‚ how many people it could hold, who gets to go in & who doesn't & what we have envisioned occupies that Corner etc., maybe even describe the buildings & what's going on in them.

9. AFTER ALL, WE'VE GOT TO HAVE A LITTLE VISION! It takes a little imagination too & inspiration, & Apollos has got it!—And he's got plenty of material! He can take it from things that have already been said & boil it down. It's got to be cut down to at least half as much text & twice as big print so the kids can easily read it, & since it's horizontal it should probably have four columns. They read those lines a lot better if they're not too long, & with little kids‚ shifting from one line to the next is one of their major problems, because they're apt to skip a line or something. So I think maybe four columns in big print would be good.

10. BY THE WAY, MAYBE WE COULD HAVE NUMBERS IN CIRCLES RELATING TO THE THINGS HE'S TALKING ABOUT IN THE PICTURE SO THE KIDS COULD EASILY FIND'M!—Like we do with our little Family News, how they relate the captions to the pictures‚ & just like we did on the last two posters where we related what amounts to the text or captions on the back by numbering them & the pictures both. That'll make it easier for the kids to find what the text is talking about. You can probably buy little sticker numbering tags that have got a circle around them already.—If not, I know you can draw'm!

11. SO YOU NEED TO START THINKING ABOUT & PREPARING FOR THE NEXT FOUR‚ AT LEAST IN YOUR SPARE TIME, SO THAT IN CASE THEY START HOLLERING FOR MORE BEFORE WE EXPECT IT, WE'LL HAVE'M READY! As you can see, it takes us about a month to get'm all figured out & corrected & texted & all the rest. We've got three of them actually done that we could use if we have to, & that's the Endtime Chart & the two Calendars. They're all texted, captioned & more or less corrected. There may be a few more corrections which I think we should make, & boy, I'll tell you‚ you really find them when you get these blown-up prints! You can really see what needs a little touching up.

12. WE HAVEN'T GOT AN AWFUL LOT TO DO, BUT WHAT IF IT TOOK US A MONTH? Most of them are going to have these first posters by the second week in December, & what if they go so fast in December that they're all out of them by the end of December? Well, we'll have another 75,000 we can send'm if we have to. But maybe those might go so fast that that'll only last'm till the end of January! That means as of right now, maybe we've only got three months to get'm a whole new batch of the next four! What if that happened? Maybe it won't, but just what if it did? We don't want to be sitting here unprepared, do we?—Because it takes us a month to get'm ready, & at Sprint it takes another month-&-a-half to get'm separated, printed & mailed, that's 2-1/2 months. From right now to the middle of January is only 2-1/2 months—& what if they run out by the middle of January? Well, our main hope is that we'll be able to shoot'm the other 75,000 right away, or at least as many as we can afford to mail, & maybe that'll keep'm going through January & into February.

13. SO WHAT I'M SAYING IS WE HAVEN'T GOT TOO MUCH TIME TO GET THE NEXT FOUR READY, so in your spare time when you're not doing something else that's more important or has top priority—like some of Maria's projects that she's so excited about—you oughtta work on getting the next four posters ready. Maria never yells‚ but you know what I mean! She keeps reminding me that you've got other things to do besides my posters! So maybe in your spare time you could fiddle around with them‚ or some evening or some Sunday afternoon or whatever you want to do, because no tellin' how soon we may need'm!

14. WE'RE PRINTING 300,000 THIS FIRST MONTH, & BEFORE THE YEAR'S OVER, GOD WILLING, WE'LL HAVE OUT OVER A MILLION OF THEM! And who knows?—They may go by half-a-year‚ & the quicker the better‚ because the Comet's coming at the end of 1985 & who knows what's going to happen? So the faster we get'm out the better! Even if we get'm printed ahead of time it wouldn't hurt any. What if the Crash comes & prices for paper & printing shoot sky-high? Wouldn't it be nice to have'm all printed already & all we have to do is pay the postage & get'm out? So I don't think it would hurt any to get'm ready & be workin' on those next four.

15. SINCE THERE'S STILL SOME WORK TO BE DONE ON THE '82 CALENDAR, I MAY DECIDE TO DO A SWITCHEROO & PUT OUT ANOTHER ONE OF THESE GORGEOUS BIG SINGLE PIX! Besides the City, I would say the most beautiful, wonderful, gorgeous, Messageful, most attractive one that would be apt to get the most attention & go the fastest of all the single pix is the Front View of the Heavenly Mansion! It's on the subject that the Lord has reserved for us & one of the most comprehensive! Don't you think that would be one of the most exciting & attractive? They'll wonder, "What in the World is that?" It has all those pretty figures & even though we dressed them up a little, it's still a little bit sexy. I especially noticed on this blow–up that it's still sexy, but it's covered up enough that at least it's legal! I think that would really go! It's got a real Message! We wouldn't want to say "Front View of Our Sky-High Mansion" because they wouldn't know what we were talking about‚ so maybe we could change that to: "A Heavenly Mansion!" And instead of covering up her pretty legs or his legs with the title, I think there's room for that right across the top just above the domes where the only thing we'd lose is a few musical notes.

16. THAT WOULD BE THEIR FIRST SAMPLE OF A BLOWN–UP SINGLE! They've already had the Heavenly City pretty much in that size, in fact even bigger, but of course they've never tried it like this GP! I hate to have to send'm two that are so similar at the same time like the two Calendar posters, I'd almost rather send them the Mansion & have Apollos write a new text for it in children's style. I wonder if he can write children's style? Well, he can try it. He's quite a brain & he talks over a lot of people's heads‚ but let's see if he can bring it down to a lower level & put his cookies on the bottom shelf for a change where even the five-year-olds can reach it! Ha!

17. SO THAT'S PROBABLY GOING TO BE IT FOR OUR FIRST TWO CHILDREN'S TEXTS, THE CITY & THE MANSION! Just think & talk it over & discuss it, & if you've got better ideas, fine! I love the Throne Scene, I love a whole bunch of them!—The Heaven on Earth scene with the mother nursing the baby, all of those! By the way, somebody suggested that mother's face could be improved & made to be a little happier or finer. They said she doesn't look feminine enough. Well, I didn't see what was wrong with her, but you guys can look at it & see what you think. But that's for the future! We've got to worry—not worry, no—but we've got to plan & figure on the next four‚ & if we should need the next four sooner than we think, that means we've got to start thinking about it now & planning it & getting them finished soon!

18. EVEN AFTER WE'VE GOT'M ALL FINISHED, THERE ARE ALWAYS SOME LAST–MINUTE CHANGES & ALWAYS SOME HITCH SOMEWHERE, so that even if we had'm all done by the end of this month & Sprint started doing them next month, they wouldn't even have the first ones till the end of January, & they wouldn't be able to get the quantities, the slow boats to China, for a month or two after that. We've really got to plan ahead on these because they're so slow getting there, so be thinking about it & working on it in your spare time! Amen? Plan ahead! GBY! ILY!—Tx!—In Jesus' name, amen!