|
Find out more about the Churches Advertising network Campaign for 2007 below and hear the ads themselves:
Christmas
adverts venture into virtual world
A Christmas advertising campaign for
the churches will take its publicity into the virtual world this month –
inviting people to have a second go at life. The new adverts which follow a
theme of second chances will invite people to visit an ‘island’ accessible
through the on-line virtual world Second Life www.secondlife.com on the internet where
Christmas events will take place and spiritual questions will be
discussed.
The new campaign was unveiled by the
Churches Advertising Network (CAN) in London today (Thursday, September 20th
2007) and forms part of an integrated
campaign which will include posters and radio for the real world as well as a
Second Life presence in the virtual world.
It will introduce people to an area in the virtual world of 'Second Life', where they can interact with
people and discuss spiritual issues. The posters pose the question, Want a
second go at life? and invite people to go to www.secondlifechance.co.uk where they will be directed to CAN’s own
‘island’ in the virtual world, as well as being
offered links through to the Rejesus website, with information on the
Christian faith. The 30 second radio adverts,
also on the website, feature four individuals leaving brief messages about how
they have found a second chance after various regrets in their lives.
CAN member and website author, Simon
Jenkins, said: “This is an exciting development for us, we are really opening up
the interactive side of our campaigns, building on the success we had last year
with 'isthisjesus' on Myspace. Beyond the activities in the
virtual world, the theme of people having a second chance at life is one that
will hit home for a large number of people.”
The island area in ‘Second Life’ is
designed as a tongue in cheek first Century Palestine,
with shops such as ‘Zacchaeus’ Bonsai
Shop’, cafes and a Roman amphitheatre with its own cinema. An animated nativity
film will also be screened in the run up to Christmas for visitors to Second
Life.
Chair of CAN, Francis Goodwin said:
“The virtual world is a brand new
departure for us and we can’t predict how
it will develop in the coming weeks. The
posters and radio adverts are very much grounded in this life and we hope they
will help people think again about God's free
offer of a second chance at life.”
CAN, the
Churches Advertising Network, is an independent and ecumenical group of Church
communicators which for the past ten years has
produced a series of striking and often controversial poster and radio
adverts. Past
campaigns have included ‘Bad Hair Day’ and ‘Meek ; Mild, As if’. Last year’s
poster campaign, featuring the face of
Jesus in an empty beer glass, sparked international media interest and thousands
of people signed up to be friends of 'isthisjesus’ through the Myspace blogging site which attracted more than 60,000
visitors. Some
62,313 unique views were recorded on 'isthisjesus' between September and January, with 2,235
friends signed up.
Previous
radio campaigns, have won several national awards. Last year’s radio commercials
were carried on more than 35 radio stations including the Galaxy network and
London's
Kiss 100FM in the run up to Christmas
2005. Production for this year’s radio adverts continue to be sponsored by
Jerusalem Productions.
From September
20th the poster and radio adverts, will be available on-line and can
be downloaded at www.churchads.org.uk
The posters are available for churches to use free of
charge in the weeks before Christmas and the radio adverts can also be placed on
local radio stations with the sponsorship of local Christian
groups.
If you are interested in sponsoring ads on radio stations in Essex, please contact our Media Chaplain:
Rev. Tony Miles
CAN has been producing thought-provoking radio adverts for local radio stations
for the past fifteen years. They
are offered free of charge to Christian groups and churches around the UK, who
will pay for airtime in order to get the adverts played on their local
commercial station in the lead up to Christmas.
The CAN Christmas Radio Campaigns have in the past been
recognised with the Andrew Cross Award for Advertising.
We hope that many local groups will take the opportunity provided
by CAN to place high quality Christian advertising, both outside their churches
and on their local radio stations in December.
| 
