Alpha UK

9 September 2005

The UK's first cinema advertisement for Christianity is launched today.
The advertisement, which will be seen by an estimated 2.4 million people during two weeks in September, features a 19-year-old model on a fashion shoot; a mountaineer climbing a peak; and a footballer scoring a winning goal.

At the moment of triumph, each asks "Is there more to life than this?'

The 60-second advertisement, which has been made by leading film production company The Mob, is the latest initiative to promote the Alpha course, a 10-week introduction to Christianity for non-churchgoers running in more than 7,000 UK churches of all denominations.

It is part of a £1 million advertising drive which includes a poster campaign on buses and taxis and millions of leaflets which will be distributed in parishes across the country.

Supper parties to introduce the course will be held in thousands of locations across the UK - including hotels, sports centres and prisons - as part of the initiative.

The cinema advertisement features three people from different walks of life who have attended Alpha courses. They are:

Bear Grylls, youngest Briton to climb Everest and star of Channel Four's recent series Escape to the Legion.
Linvoy Primus, Premiership footballer, who plays for Portsmouth FC.
Kim Johnson, an international model - who featured in the Nicole Farhi show; Vivienne Westwood show; Paul Costello show; Jasper Conran show; Elle magazine and Glamour magazine.

The film, which is being financed by churches and charitable trusts and Christian benefactors, will be shown on 2,000 Odeon, UCI, Cineworld, and Showcase cinema screens across the UK.

Postcards with Alpha information will be available free in foyer racks at cinemas where the campaign is featured.

Alpha UK Director Rebecca Stewart said, "With an increasing number of young people in their 20s and 30s attending Alpha courses, cinema advertising is ideal for us to increase the profile of the course among those who are most interested. "We expect the advert to make a real impact.'

Nicky Gumbel, founder of the course, said "We have heard so many wonderful stories of people - many of them young - whose lives have been changed by God through the Alpha course in churches of all denominations throughout the country.

"These annual initiatives are intended to make it easier for church members to offer a personal invitation to their friends. All the evidence shows that they are working.'

This is the Alpha course's eighth annual advertising campaign in the UK. More than 1.8 million people in the UK have already attended the course - and more than seven million people worldwide.

ENDS

For further information, contact:
Mark Elsdon-Dew, Communications Director
+44 (0)20 7052 0271 or +44 (0)7623 975422 (pager)