Church Ads have a new Christmas poster. Here is the poster - and the accompanying article from their website. I do hope it gets lots of people talking!
Christmas starts here. In January churchgoers were dismayed by atheist bus adverts proclaiming that ‘There’s probably no God’.
They will be encouraged to hear that recent research by Theos reveals that 85% of people agree that ‘Christmas should be called Christmas because we are still a Christian country’. But, research also shows that only 12% of adults know the facts of the Christmas story in any detail – the figure dropping to just 7% amongst 18‐24 year olds. So, to keep Christmas focused on Christ, we need to constantly tell the story of his birth in ways which engage positively with the public.
Churches of all denominations are therefore being urged to participate in an advertising campaign: ‘Christmas Starts with Christ’. Posters on bus shelters feature a painting by the renowned artist, Andrew Gadd, depicting the traditional nativity scene in a modern day equivalent of a stable – a bus shelter. Radio commercials cleverly and light‐heartedly set the nativity in the context of a soccer match, a horse race, a police car chase and the Christmas pop chart countdown. The ads have been created by ChurchAds.net, an ecumenical charity comprising senior communications officers from the Anglican, Methodist and Baptist churches; plus the Church Army and Salvation Army, together with Christians from media and advertising organisations.
Church leaders have welcomed the campaign, urging churches to
participate. Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon says: ‘This year’s atheist bus adverts backfired (for the atheists) by putting God on the public agenda and provoking people to ask if he is there. Well, Christians now have a chance to say a firm and confident ‘yes – and he looks like Jesus! Christmas is his festival.’
Visit www.ChurchAds.net for more information
Thats very clever thinking. About time someone in the media stood up for what we believe.
ReplyDeleteI love the Christmas adverts - when I was in the UK it was a different organisation who was doing them but we tried to use them every year in our Christmas outreach events - they are just so imaginative. It really shows what advertising people can do when focused on something other than making money! We have kept a lot of their material, bit I don't know that it would work in France, or even in other English speaking countries - I know my American Christian friends often thought I was being irreverent when I played around with ideas like this campaign does.
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