"chief evangelist" -- standard business jargon? -- since when?

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is one example in 1921 suggesting that the perception of a
connection between salesmanship and evangelism has a long history.

Cite: 1921 April, Drug Store Merchandising (Consolidating National
Drug Clerk), The Economic Value of the Wholesale Salesman by Elliot
Church, Start Page 20, Quote Page 21, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books
full view)

http://books.google.com/books?id=pBrnAAAAMAAJ&q=evangelist#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
The wholesale salesman is something of a combination of a business
teacher, a business evangelist and a big brother. There is no man who
is doing more to improve business methods, to prevent failures and
often to prevent a man going all to pieces than he is doing.
[End excerpt]

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "chief evangelist" -- standard business jargon? -- since
>              when?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The business use of "evangelism" and "evangelist" has been around since the
> 1980s. It's a specialized application of the OED's sense d. of evangelist,
> "a zealous advocate of a cause or promulgator of a doctrine."
>
> Evangelism is a subset of marketing focused on word of mouth techniques and
> generating "buzz," so the terms "evangelist" and "marketing officer" are not
> exactly synonymous.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism_marketing
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Dan Goncharoff
> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 4:02 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "chief evangelist" -- standard business jargon? -- since when?
>
> "Evangelist" seems to have replaced "marketing officer" in job descriptions.
> DanG
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 3:36 PM, George Thompson
> <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>> Subject:      "chief evangelist" -- standard business jargon? -- since
>> when?
>>
>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>>
>> From NY Times, March 20, 2012, Business Section, p. 1, col. 5, a story
> that
>> Google is raising its charges for providing maps used in on-line ads:
>>
>> =93If you are a site just looking to put a pizzeria on a map, it=92s no
> big
>> deal, but if you are trying to put a brand around your mapping, it=92s a
>> bi=
>> g
>> deal,=94 said James Fee, chief evangelist at WeoGeo, which provides
>> locatio=
>> n
>> data. =93Google says it will affect a very small number of users, but I
>> hav=
>> e
>> heard it will touch 30 or 40 percent of people who really depend on maps
>> for their business. It could cost you tens of thousands of dollars a
>> month.=
>> =94
>>
>> GAT
>>
>> --=20
>> George A. Thompson
>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
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>
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