November 23, 2010—Toledo, OH— Wake Up, a new six week multi-media campaign from the diocese aiming to attract inactive or absent Catholics back to the Catholic Church kicked off earlier this month across the 19 county diocese. Under the direction of the diocesan Communications Office, the campaign utilizes a mix of television, radio, billboards, print and social media to reach millennials through baby boomers.

According to Communications Director Sally Oberski, the Wake Up campaign was created to re-connect absent or inactive Catholics with their Catholic faith. “We want people to get in the habit of attending Mass on a regular basis. We are seeing a decline in regular Mass participation and our campaign was designed to inspire people to literally wake up their families and go to church.” The campaign is also designed to support the evangelization efforts of Awakening Faith, a welcoming and evangelization program that many diocesan parishes will be implementing early next year.

The Wake Up campaign features two television commercials that will run the course of the campaign. One of the commercials highlights the growth and ministry over the last 100 years as the diocese continues to celebrate its Centenary. An additional commercial features testimonial messages from people from diocese, who share their “wake up call” stories that reconnected them with the Catholic Church. The campaign also includes an interactive website where people are invited to share their “wake up call” that brought them back to the Catholic Church.

“The idea behind the Wake Up campaign is to not only include stories about the moment or event that brought individuals back to the Catholic church, but to nudge the Catholics who might be missing something in their lives. We want them to “wake up”, join in and feel the joy of their faith again,” said Laura Jakes creative team member.

The funding for the project comes from both the Annual Catholic Appeal and Catholic Communications Campaign collection that took place in October in all of the parishes.

For more information please contact the Communications Office at 419-244-6711 ext. 148 or visit www.mywakeup.org.

The Diocese of Toledo, established April 15, 1910 encompasses 8222 square miles in a mixture of urban and rural areas that spans 19 counties across Northwest Ohio, serving 321,516 Catholics in 127 parishes. The diocese includes Allen, Crawford, Defiance, Erie, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Huron, Lucas, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca, and Van Wert, Williams, Wood and Wyandot counties.

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