“It makes you think ...”

A progress report on the RARTL ad campaign

Almost three years ago, RARTL began to work on how we might put together an ad campaign to “sell” the general public on pro-life considerations.  With the help and direction of Bruce Zaepfel, we put together a series of radio and print ads to bring to the public ideas of why one might choose to go counter to the current way of thinking, why one might decide to give an unborn child a chance rather than choosing the allegedly quick and easy solution of abortion.

Several anonymous donations and a couple of grants have allowed us to start the action.

We have had an ad in the monthly Rochester Women’s Magazine since September, due to run out after the January issue.  Radio ads on 98PXY began in November, on a flighted schedule, two weeks on followed by two weeks off, for a total of 6 weeks on, scheduled around the weekend each week.  We were fortunate in that our ads coincided with both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We had hoped simply to raise awareness of the fact that one can choose life and that there are resources to help even women who are uninsured.  We felt that calls would let us know that our message got through.

We did get calls, some from women who thought they were pregnant and two from women who thought we shouldn’t voice our convictions.

We also got one call from a young man who said he and his girlfriend wanted to keep the baby.  He said they had called Planned Parenthood, but Planned Parenthood had said they “couldn’t help.”  We referred him to a couple of the pro-life pregnancy centers, assuring him that they would be delighted to hear from him.

His comment was interesting.  He said he had been in his car a couple of weeks earlier and heard one of our radio ads.  He said it “made him think” and he realized he’d better do something, so he wrote down our phone number.  It made him think...

The radio station representative said she had not gotten any comments herself about our ads, nor had the radio station.  However, some of the interns, college students serving at the radio station, said they had heard comments that “it makes you think.”

Maybe that’s the ultimate compliment.  “It makes you think.”

The young man who did his thinking had a parting thought for us.  He said, “Keep running those ads.”

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Want to help?  Contact us at:
Rochester Area Right to Life Committee Education Fund
675 Ling Road, Suite 3
Rochester, NY 14612
(585) 621-4690

RARTL Updated February, 2005