Diocese of York / News & events / News

The Christmas Starts with Christ church advertising campaign, started six years ago, is making in-roads into raising awareness about the true meaning of Christmas, according to a ComRes survey. The release of the survey results come as organisers say that the campaign is backed by the largest number of churches ever.

Francis Goodwin, of the ChurchAds.Net, says 4,500 churches joined the campaign last year but he would like more to come on board this year to reach a target of 10,000 in order to achieve even greater momentum to raise awareness of the Christmas message.

“When we started this campaign we were worried because 51 per cent of adults thought that the birth of Christ had no relevance to Christmas but research has shown that we are reversing this, especially among the 18 to 24-year-olds. In this group four out of 10 who saw the ads now understand more about the true meaning of Christmas,” he said as the campaign released its Christmas 2014 resources.

All of the resources are available free of cost for download and use through the website www.ChristmasStartsWithChrist.com for churches, church groups, Christian organisations, radio stations, newspapers and anyone who needs material to promote the true meaning of Christmas in their local areas.

There are 16 posters, three radio ads, 10 web banners & social media images, the campaign logo and a resource pack for churches available for use this year.

“If Christian organisations and churches remember just one thing,” said Goodwin, “all of the material is FREE, FREE, FREE. There is nothing to pay, no permission to be sought, no rights sign-off to be had, just download them and use them.”

Award-winning stand-up comic, Paul Kerensa, is providing the voices for the radio ads that churches can use for free, to place on their local radio stations to promote the true meaning of Christmas.

Kerensa, also a writer for sitcoms like Miranda and Not Going Out, and author of books including So A Comedian Walks Into A Church...Confessions of a kneel-down stand-up, features as a number of character voices on three new ads scheduled to hit the airwaves in early December as part of the Christmas Starts with Christ Campaign.

“For me, Christmas normally ends in a mess but this campaigns reminds us it starts with Christ. These excellent ads spoof the daytime tabloid talkshows and hopefully, these commercials will remind listeners that in the birthday party this Christmas, we shouldn’t forget the birthday boy,” said Kerensa.

ChurchAds.Net was formally setup in 1992 after it ran an experimental Christmas advertising campaign in Oxford in 1991. It has since run many high-profile campaigns around Easter and Christmas.

The 2009 Christmas campaign, which was the first to run under the Christmas Starts with Christ theme, was intended to last for five years but so successful is it that it continues into its sixth year, this year.