PowerMedia

On December 1, 2004, the United Church of Christ (UCC) announced that they will be airing their first crossover ad. The ad would be aired from 12/1 until 12/26/04. However, on November 29, 2004, CBS and NBC refused to run the UCC’s paid advertisement on these specific networks. CBS and NBC deemed this advertising campaign as “too controversial” to air on major network television. The ad was allowed to air on ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land. As of 12/1/04, media buys were pending on CNN, Lifetime, Comedy Central and MSNBC.

The 30-second ad begins with two men who appear to be well-built, bouncers dressed in black clothing (cotton tee-shirts and black dress pants). They are standing in front of a stone church that is surrounded by areas roped off preventing anyone from getting in anywhere but where the bouncers are standing. They are only allowing “white, Christian-looking” people into the church. They are rejecting the “other” races, minorities and people of same-sex orientation. They are blatantly being denied acceptance into Sunday Mass. The next scene turns to a black screen and the there are white words that appear and a voice that states “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.” The next scene plays happier music, and flashes scenes of happy people of all races and preferences. The voice continues to narrate, “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” The ad concludes with a panoramic view of people of all different races. It also flashes to a scene of two women with their arms around each other. The ad implies that all races are welcome and also people who choose to live an alternative lifestyle.

The UCC’s main purpose of the ad was to improve its recognition with the church-goers and to become more popular with the younger people. Although the UCC has about 6,000 congregations across the U.S. and about 1.3 million members, the church still feels as though it is not as wide-known as it could be. The symbolism in the commercial was put-forth to demonstrate the present rejection that people feel toward the church. Before the ad was filmed the UCC hired Ted Pulton, a managing partner of the New York based ad firm, Gotham, Inc. to use group testing. The UCC wanted to know the present-day outlook that the people of the U.S. really have on the church. The group testing “revealed that only a small handful of participants said that they knew something about the denomination. Random testing also uncovered strong negative feelings about churches in general, regardless of denomination. A large percentage of respondents said that they held churches to be responsible for past hurts in their lives, and many traced their feelings of inadequacy to negative church experiences.” (www.ucc.org/news/r112904.htm).

The problem with today’s congregations is that they have left worshippers with a sense of insufficiency resulting in a general outlook of not feeling welcome into a church any longer. As a result of this testing, the UCC decided to base the ad’s theme around rejection of other churches and acceptance into their church. They wanted to symbolize the people’s present day feelings of rejection. They also chose to conclude the UCC ad with feelings of acceptance and welcome no matter who you are or how you choose to live life.

This ad campaign is also tied to a UCC nation-wide program in an attempt to welcome newcomers into worship. There have been thousands of lay persons and clergy trained for this new program. The materials used to train are built on the slogan, “God is Still Speaking.” “This is a modern rendition of the farewell by Pilgrim Pastor, John Robinson, to his congregation of dissidents who set sail on the Mayflower for the New World. “Do not cling to where Calvin and Luther left us,” Robinson said, God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from God’s Holy Word.” (www.ucc.org/news/r112904.htm).

The pilgrims are one the many predecessor’s of the UCC. The UCC is a mix of four distinct Christian traditions which includes, Congregational, Reformed, Evangelical and Christian.

Since the ad had been aired, the UCC has experienced an influx of new worshippers. The ad campaign’s director, Ron Buford says, “The comment I hear most often when people visit a UCC church for the first time is, ‘I never knew that a church like this existed.’” “Declaring that the UCC must ‘not succumb to relentless erosion,’ the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC General Minister and President, states, ‘In an age of media saturation, if you are not visible on television, the popular assumption is that you do not exist. This effort shows the world that we have a bold and dynamic message to proclaim.’”(www.ucc.org/news).


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