'Unreal' Gospel TV Spots Target Youth Culture

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, December 13, 2007

An innovative media outreach ministry has launched an edgy television campaign targeting the MTV generation.

Called the "UNREAL" Gospel campaign, TV commercials have begun airing on MTV and other media outlets this month with messages designed to reach out to a culture in despair and in need of hope.

"Some will call the TV spots edgy. Others will be startled at the graphics. And many will relate to the feelings and emotions the spots address," said Drew Dickens, executive director of NeedHim Ministries, which created TV campaign. "For those who know the distortion and despair of our culture today, the message of the UNREAL spots is hope. As the characters remind the viewer ...through Jesus, I am real again."

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NeedHim Ministries created 10 TV spots based on the Ten Commandments that will run as a national four-week campaign through the DISH Network, reaching as many as 1.5 million viewers in the 18- to 34-year-old market, and the NRB Network.

Each commercial starts out with a distorted cartoon graphic of a young person saying, "Today, I'm unreal." The featured character goes on to talk about his or her personal problems - including emptiness and feeling fake, busyness and forgetting God, and flirtation with a co-worker that goes too far. Each issue deals with the commandments in the Bible but is conveyed in a gripping and poignant way that would grab the attention of young people.

"Do you feel unreal?" the commercial directs to viewers.

"How do we reach an iPod, MTV, YouTube generation with God's message of hope? How do we stay true to Biblical wisdom and still relate to people wrapped up in an un-Godly world?" NeedHim Ministries posed when designing the campaign.

The new TV spots are believed to have met that challenge.

Following the personal story of each individual, the commercial briefly explains the disconnect from reality comes from ignoring God and that it leads to sin. Providing viewers hope, it continues, "But Jesus has made a way back to reality. Let us help you discover it."

At the end of each commercial, the cartoon graphics dissipate, making the individual "real" again.

"Through Jesus, I'm real again," says the featured person.

Commending the UNREAL campaign, Wayne Pederson, president of Moody Broadcasting, said, "I applaud you for using this medium to communicate the Gospel. The message is very clear ... non-church language to capture sin and eternal separation from God."

NeedHim Ministries was created in 1996 to provide an evangelism response strategy to enable anyone, particularly young people, to speak live with a trained volunteer about how to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. More than 1,200 radio and television stations and other media outlets across the country promote the ministry's call-in number 888-NeedHim and website NeedHim.org. NeedHim partners include the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Campus Crusade for Christ, Moody Bible and other evangelical ministries.