First such national TV ad campaign ever for the Catholic Church
Commercials on prime time television on all major networks set to air shortly will have a simple message - "Catholics Come Home." It's the first such national TV ad campaign ever for the Catholic Church, Tom Peterson, president of Catholics Come Home says. The organization wants to reach out not only to inactive Catholics, but also to people without a faith or who are considering switching religions.
The nonprofit lay organization Catholics Come Home has partnered with dioceses nationwide to launch a major, national 'evangelization' campaign.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The nonprofit lay organization has partnered with dioceses nationwide to launch a major, national "evangelization" campaign. The main component is nearly $4 million in network TV ads that will air across the country Dec. 16 to Jan. 8.
"Ads will air more than 400 times during the three-week period on major networks like CBS and NBC and cable stations like TNT and CNN inviting viewers to take a look at the church and to 'come home' during the holidays and New Year's," Peterson says.
The 30 and 60-second commercials will air in English and Spanish on major networks in every diocese. Peterson adds that 250 million viewers in more than 10,000 cities and every diocese will be exposed to the ads.
Catholics Come Home has previously aired evangelization ads in regional markets like Seattle, Omaha, Neb. and Providence, R.I. A few hundred thousand people "returned" to the church as a result, Peterson says. The goal of the campaign is to bring as many as one million people back to the Catholic faith, he adds.
About 65 million people identify themselves as Catholic in the U.S., making it the single largest denomination in America. According to a recent Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate poll, only 33 percent of U.S. Catholics attend weekly Mass, which means 42.7 million, or two-thirds, of U.S. Catholics are not going to Mass, Peterson says.
That's a sizable audience of potential church-goers waiting to be tapped. Peterson says that research has proved that the average American spends 38 hours per week consuming media, with TV and Internet being the top two choices, so it's logical to reach out to them via television.
"Companies like Coca Cola, Microsoft, IBM are using advertising communication to promote a product. It makes sense for faithful Christians and Catholics to use modern media to promote the most important thing in world, and that is faith in Jesus Christ," Peterson says.
"Ads will air more than 400 times during the three-week period on major networks like CBS and NBC and cable stations like TNT and CNN inviting viewers to take a look at the church and to 'come home' during the holidays and New Year's," Peterson says.
The 30 and 60-second commercials will air in English and Spanish on major networks in every diocese. Peterson adds that 250 million viewers in more than 10,000 cities and every diocese will be exposed to the ads.
Catholics Come Home has previously aired evangelization ads in regional markets like Seattle, Omaha, Neb. and Providence, R.I. A few hundred thousand people "returned" to the church as a result, Peterson says. The goal of the campaign is to bring as many as one million people back to the Catholic faith, he adds.
About 65 million people identify themselves as Catholic in the U.S., making it the single largest denomination in America. According to a recent Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate poll, only 33 percent of U.S. Catholics attend weekly Mass, which means 42.7 million, or two-thirds, of U.S. Catholics are not going to Mass, Peterson says.
That's a sizable audience of potential church-goers waiting to be tapped. Peterson says that research has proved that the average American spends 38 hours per week consuming media, with TV and Internet being the top two choices, so it's logical to reach out to them via television.
"Companies like Coca Cola, Microsoft, IBM are using advertising communication to promote a product. It makes sense for faithful Christians and Catholics to use modern media to promote the most important thing in world, and that is faith in Jesus Christ," Peterson says.
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