With billboard campaign, area councils expect to reach 3 million drivers in December

Detroit — Driving down the highway, you pass a billboard advertising sunglasses half-off until Christmas. In another one, a polar bear in a Santa hat is drinking a cold beverage. Even the Black Friday specials haven’t fully faded from view.

The next billboard, however, isn’t trying to sell you anything. Its message is simple: “Keep Christ in Christmas.”

If you’ve seen one of those “ads” lately, you might want to thank your local Knights of Columbus council.

“I think those words are great,” said Owen Grant, past grand knight of the Fr. Patrick O’Kelley Council 3860 in Dearborn. “We have too much emphasis on presents and things like that at Christmastime and not enough on the birth of Jesus.”

For the past four years, such billboards have gone up around Metro Detroit thanks in large part to the efforts of Grant, who says he initially “stole” the idea from the Knights of Columbus in Ohio.



“They rented a billboard on the route I take when I go down to visit my sister,” Grant told The Michigan Catholic. “I saw it and thought, ‘Gee, that’s pretty good.’ So I contacted CBS and another billboard company around here to get the costs and the background, with the idea of renting a billboard similar to that for the month of December.”

Initially, Grant wanted to rent just one billboard, but CBS would only offer a minimum of five, he said.  Because five billboards can get expensive — $1,250 for the month — Grant decided to gauge the support of his fellow Knights to sign on.

After gaining permission from the state deputy, Grant wrote to each of the councils in the Archdiocese of Detroit explaining the project.

“I did the rough math, and since we have about 140 councils in the Archdiocese of Detroit, I figured about $25 a council and we should be able to pay for it,” he said. Though he admitted most councils “don’t have much money,” the first year nearly 45 councils accepted the invitation to contribute, and the first five billboards went up.

This year, the Knights raised enough money for 10 billboards, and the yearly project is showing no signs of slowing down.

“I’ve contacted a council in the Diocese of Lansing, and they think it’s a good idea, too. So I guess they’re going to try to do something near Lansing,” Grant said.

Because the Knights are a charitable organization, CBS cuts the councils a break on the cost, Grant said, but “the only caveat” is that someone paying full price can be choosier about their billboards’ locations.

“I try to put them in locations near councils that contributed (to the effort),” he said. “This year, out of the 10, nine locations were the same as last year.”

Over the course of the month, the billboards will be seen an estimated 3,085,352 times by drivers and passers-by, according to documentation provided by Grant to The Michigan Catholic showing CBS’ estimated “impressions” for each location. The billboard expected to see the most traffic is one facing north on Telegraph Road north of Eton Road in Dearborn Heights.

Grant said the beauty of the billboards is in their simplicity.

“It’s simple because you don’t have much time to read it. When you see it, you need a quick grasp of what’s on it,” he said. “Our society seems to be getting more and more secular; it’s not popular to be a Christian, quite honestly. Many people don’t believe in any religion, and hopefully this will make people think about what the true meaning of Christmas is.”

While Grant said he didn’t know whether billboard campaigns might be an overlooked opportunity for other areas of the Church, he said he hopes the Knights’ signs can help combat some of the commercialization taking over the season.

“I think this Hollywood version of what Christmas is … is the wrong message,” he said.

Grant said there are many ways to keep Christ in Christmas, but he recommended starting with Mass.

“I try to keep Christ in my life all the year, but especially at the birth of Christ. That’s what Christmas is all about. It’s not about presents and things like that,” he said. “I try to go to church daily, so December is no different for me than it is the rest of the year.”

 

Billboard locations

Detroit: Woodward, south of Burroughs (west side facing north)

Warren: East Eight Mile, west of Urbanek (north side facing west)

Clinton Township: Groesbeck, north of 15 Mile (west side facing north)

Mount Clemens: Groesbeck, north of Elizabeth (east side facing south)

Warren: Hoover, north of Avondale (east side facing south)

Roseville: Little Mack and Homeland (northwest corner facing north)

Dearborn Heights: Telegraph, north of Eton (east side facing north)

Romulus: Ecorse and Wayne Course (northeast side facing east)

Waterford Township: Telegraph, south of Dixie (west side facing northeast)

Clinton Township: Groesbeck, south of Harrington (southeast corner facing north)