" Focus on Life " TV Ad Campaign a whopping success in beautiful British Columbia

 By Monica and Malcolm Roddis

"What's the biggest, upscale place in Vancouver?"

  "The Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre, of course."

  "If we host a formal dinner how many people shall we plan on?"

  "Well, maybe 1,600 but it's never been done before."

  "If we plan this dinner, how much will we have to charge?"

  "Well maybe $50.00 each!"

  "$50.00 each! Would the pro-life community in Greater Vancouver and the Lower Mainland area pay this much money when we have only ever charged, maybe, $10 for a potluck supper?"

   "No, they will not. They will give more because we are also going to ask each one of them for a donation while at the dinner as well! A donation that will provide the financial resources to mount our television campaign."

Thus began the script for the start of the most significant initiative ever undertaken by the pro-life community of British Columbia . An initiative to harness the power of television for life instead of having an almost constant litany of messages shown against life. An initiative that would rapidly galvanize into greater action pro-life groups from around the province as they adopted the exciting strategy of placing woman-centred, life-affirming ads on major television stations in British Columbia .

In the fall of 1998, the Pro-Life Society of British Columbia, the umbrella organization for all pro-life educational groups in the province, supported by the then Respect Life Office of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver and the Christian Advocacy Society of Greater Vancouver, launched Focus on Life which followed the model used by Michigan Right to Life in the use of professionally-made television ads that spoke directly to women who were facing a crisis pregnancy. The placing of ads on television has been a major action for Michigan over a number of years and has been directly linked to the dramatic reduction in the abortion rate in that state. The ads also serve to inform the general public of the issue, thus leading to greater awareness and greater support for the life position.

"So let's pick a date," said one committee member, and thus began in earnest the taking of a concept and idea into the realms of reality.

"Let's go with May 14," suggested another "to coincide with the anniversary of the 1969 Criminal Code amendment that opened the floodgates to abortion in Canada ."

The date was agreed to by all, and a phone call to the Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre booked the location for May 14, 1999 . A list of potential speakers was drafted and from this extensive list, Norma McCorvey, (the Roe in Roe v Wade) was invited to be the keynote speaker along with Dr. Heather Morris, co-founder of Alliance for Life in Canada, and Dr. Daryl Reid, President of Focus on the Family Canada. Archbishop Adam Exner of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, an enthusiastic supporter of Focus on Life from the very beginning, was invited to welcome the dinner guests.

In the months leading up to the dinner, the enthusiasm grew as reports flooded in of yet more reservations for tables seating 10 people. This clearly became an opportunity for the pro-life community to showcase its resolve, its support, and its commitment. It was also an opportunity for pro-life people to gather together in a common bond and draw strength from networking with hundreds of like-minded people. Sometimes, those who have laboured long in this great cause for life grow weary and long for a sign or two that the dry and arid desert of despair can yield a beautiful oasis of hope. So it was with the guests at the dinner who walked into a ballroom and immediately were surrounded by laughter, encouragement, and above all, hope.

And the generosity paralleled the enthusiasm. Donations at the dinner, together with other funds that came in from individuals, groups and parishes, amounted to over $200,000 and provided the seed money to mount an ad campaign for three weeks in early June 1999 and a campaign of similar length in the fall of the same year. Wow!

The three ads shown in the initial campaign were selected from those available from Michigan and chosen by professional counsellors involved with crisis pregnancy centres. These ads were then placed on television programmes that research indicated were watched by the target audience - women between the ages of 18 and 34. In total, the ads were shown 188 times in each campaign segment and were followed by a poll conducted by MarkTrend Research that took place in November, 1999.

The poll results were remarkable! The recall rate of the ads was almost 60% of those surveyed - very high, considering the shortness of the campaign. Fifty percent of those surveyed said that the ads communicated their message in a reasonable way, and among those who had a "pro-choice" leaning, 24% said that the ads had some effect on how they viewed the issue of abortion. This was very significant and clearly indicated that pro-life ads, professionally produced and directed very specifically to a focused audience, do have the ability to influence public opinion.

The success of the 1999 dinner led to its repeat in May, 2000 with Dr. Bernard Nathanson as the keynote speaker, Mother Agnes Donovan of the Sisters of Life in New York in 2001, and Ruth Graham McIntyre (daughter of evangelist, Dr. Billy Graham) in 2002.

From the early days of Focus on Life when a three-week campaign costing $100,000 was undertaken, successive campaigns have become longer in duration and the ads have been placed on major television stations throughout the province and have reached into over a million homes. In 2002, the ads were seen a total of 1,600 times and the response to them is always immediate.

Part of the Focus on Life initiative is to have a toll-free number for women to call where they can receive help. This dedicated number, 1-877-88WOMAN , appears at the end of all the ads, and the crisis pregnancy centre that receives the calls from this number experiences a dramatic increase in the call rate once the ads begin and, sadly, a similar drop in the call rate when the ads are no longer being shown. This caused the Focus on Life Committee to adopt the phrase " once on - never off '" as its campaign slogan in order to remain focussed on the ultimate goal of having the ads shown continuously, day after day, throughout each and every year.

Mention was made earlier of this initiative having galvanized into greater action pro-life groups around the province. Modelled on the Vancouver dinner, local dinners have been held in Kamloops , Salmon Arm, Courtenay, Terrace and Smithers with the proceeds directed to the ads. Many other provincial groups, such as Kelowna and Abbotsford, have provided significant donations to ensure that the campaign continues and the airwaves are not silent to the horrors of abortion.

So how many people did attend the first dinner in 1999?

"Well, we came up a little bit short of the number the committee dreamed of , " says Malcolm Roddis, Chairman of the Focus on Life television campaign. "The number thrown out at the inaugural meeting of the committee of 1,600 people was really just pulled out of the air and many of us thought this number impossible to achieve! Well, as I watched the throngs of people coming through the foyer of the Pan Pacific Hotel and along the causeway to the ballroom, I could hardly breathe for excitement. 1,574 wonderful supporters came to the dinner with many, many of them coming back year after year!"

The television campaign, now in its fifth year has raised nearly three quarters of a million dollars and has brought the message in support of life to the people of beautiful British Columbia . Focus on Life has simply taken the message, applied it through the medium of television, and turned up the volume.

The Focus on Life campaign is a significant part of the overall strategy of the Pro-Life Society of British Columbia to fulfil its mandate of educating the general public in all the life issues. Its office is located in Abbotsford , BC and its President is Monica Roddis. Her husband, Malcolm, is chairman of Focus on Life.