Times Square billboard will show United Methodist message
10/16/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
A photo illustration is available.
"Open
Hearts. Open Doors. Open Minds." The United Methodist Church's
welcoming message will be featured on the 7,000-square-foot billboard in
New York City's Times Square beginning Nov. 15. UMNS photo illustration
by James Stephens, Photo number 03-368, Accompanies UMNS #496, 10/16/03
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Igniting Ministry. Photo number W03046, Accompanies UMNS#496
No Long Caption Available for this Story
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist
Church's message of "open hearts, open minds, open doors" will be
featured on one of the world's largest electronic video signs in New
York City beginning Nov. 15.
The welcome message and images from
the denomination's Igniting Ministry media initiative will be seen on
the 7,000-square-foot multimedia billboard in Times Square through the
end of November. The Times Square display spans 28 floors of the Reuters
and Instinet building.
"The Times Square billboard will help to
tell the world that the United Methodist Church talks to people at
street level. That concept - reaching people where they are, not just on
Sunday, but every day - is core to United Methodist beliefs," said the
Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive of United Methodist Communications,
which administers the Igniting Ministry initiative.
"This is one
more way we can reinforce to all people who see the sign that the United
Methodist Church is about open hearts, open minds and open doors," he
added.
Both the location and the dates of the display are
significant, Hollon said. "Times Square represents, for many, the
cultural epicenter of the world, and the run encompasses Thanksgiving
Day, when the Macy's parade passes by."
The most recent United
Methodist television ad, "The Gift," will run on the display's central
portion in a 30-second format 10 times daily between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m.,
for a total of 144 times. Additional images from Igniting Ministry print
ads also will be featured.
The new display is not the first
such Igniting Ministry venture in New York. The campaign erected an
outdoor billboard with the theme, "Fear is not the only force at work in
the world today," a block from Ground Zero, soon after the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. United Methodist Communications launched
Igniting Ministry in 2001 to raise awareness of the denomination through
a series of national cable television commercials. The campaign also
includes radio spots and non-broadcast ads, matching grants, training
resources and a Web presence. The church's top legislative assembly,
meeting in 2000, approved funding the initiative with almost $20 million
for a four-year period. "Igniting Ministry is about more than
television," Hollon said. "It is aimed at creating an awareness of who
we are as United Methodists. This new opportunity builds on the success
the campaign has achieved in the past two years."
Since Igniting
Ministry's debut, more than 92 million people have seen the "open
hearts, open minds, open doors" messages, according to the Rev. Steve
Horswill-Johnston, a UMCom staff executive who leads the effort.
Details on the Igniting Ministry campaign are available at www.IgnitingMinistry.org.
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This story was adapted from a United Methodist Communications press release.