Censored Again! UCC Buys Ads on Blogs

Last December, NBC and CBS played Scrooge to the message of welcome that the United Church of Christ (UCC) wanted to place on national television. The 1.3 million member Protestant denomination didn' get thier ad on network TV, but it made national news as religious leaders and editorial writers -- and bloggers -- denounced the censorship. Consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds, when the UCC sought to place the same ads with the networks this spring, of course they refused to run the ad. But this time, in addition to airing the ad on cable networks and purchasing a mix of radio and print ads, the historic church took another major innovative step, and placed ads on the top 50 blogs, such as The Daily Kos, according to a story by United Church News, as well as such UCC-affiliated blogs as faithforward and Chuck Currie.

The UCC's blogads feature still photos from the censored TV spot -- inviting readers to "see the ad the networks didn't want you to see." The UCC expects to reach 1 million people in this way.

"Knowing little of blogs six months ago," said Rev. Robert Chase, director of communications for the 1.3-million-member denomination, "we increasingly recognize that these folks are informational trend setters. If this ad campaign goes as planned, we'll consider shifting even more to blogs and away from traditional media the next go around."

"'The blog's emergence,' Chase said, 'can be equated to the invention of the printing press, the development of radio and television, or the availability of 24-hour cable news stations."

"'It's a great investment of our advertising dollars,' he said."

"'In December 2004, the earliest reports of the networks' reject of the ad were written by bloggers,'" Chase pointed out. "Because of the attention that bloggers gave to the UCC's story, the networks no longer could hide their censorship of an intentionally-welcoming, progressive religious message," Chase said. 'It's something we're seeing happen more and more - the most credible, engaging news reports are coming from bloggers.'"

"'While many are still unaware of it,' Chase continued, 'the blogosphere has emerged as the next great revolution in journalism. In the tradition of this nation's earliest pamphleteers, bloggers are sharing news and information as a mark of a truly free society, not as something that can be controlled and manipulated by multi-national corporations.'"