Britain’s churches have just launched a festive campaign with the
slogan Fix the World this Christmas. It is the first of four promotions
under the ’New Start’ theme which will appear in the run-up to the
Millennium.
The aim is to boost active Christianity.
The campaign has already come under fire since the posters make no
mention of God or Jesus Christ. The Times reports that a churchgoer from
Wolverhampton has taken to the Internet to attack the Fix the World
message and the lack of Christian branding.
But that rather misses the point. While clearly not wishing to alienate
regular churchgoers, the campaign’s real focus is on motivating those
who only turn up for christenings, weddings, funerals and a good sing
song on Christmas Eve. It is a soft sell for a reluctant audience, not
preaching to the converted.
The real difficulty will be getting the message seen and heard by the
massive target group amid all the seasonal consumer clutter. The call to
spend at the electronic altars of St Tesco and St Michael will doubtless
be loud and long. This campaign only has a budget of pounds 35,000. So
the Church Advertising Network (CAN) is urging local parishes to get
things moving at the grass roots by ordering pounds 10 marketing packs
which include car stickers, posters and Christmas cards.
CAN is a multi-denominational group of volunteers from advertising and
marketing agencies. It has brought some much-needed fresh thinking to
promoting the Church in recent years. Last year it won acclaim for its
poster campaign in which the word Christmas appeared with the
international copyright symbol and the line ’It’s not a genuine
Christmas without Church’.
This was all good stuff - especially as there seems to be some evidence
that we’re starting to tire of the ’shop ’til you drop/open all
hours/sale starts Boxing Day/must have a turbo-charged yo-yo and a
Furby’ messages.
Reclaiming Christmas and emphasising its religious significance strikes
a chord with many and was probably worth a re-work for 1998. It’s a
simple proposition, easily understood, and a good kick-off for the
Church’s message that the Millennium is more than just the biggest party
of all time.
