Reach Out And Touch Someone: Bringing People Home

If you were born in the Baby Boom generation or even born in the Generation X you will probably understand one of the most successful slogans of the past 50 years: Reach Out And Touch Someone by AT&T.

 The history of this commercial begins with its original pitch.  

N.W. Ayer, one of America's oldest advertising agencies, needed a creative approach to help AT&T soften its image in the face of growing concerns about AT&T's potential monopoly. So Ken D'Ambrosio helped develop the concept for a print and TV campaign that incorporated the now famous "Reach Out and Touch Someone" tag line. We can credit Marshall McLuhan for creating the tagline "Reach out and touch someone" for Ma Bell. This campaign was designed to soften AT&T's image and position the company as an indispensable element of everyday American life. https://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/images/ads/reachout1984.jpg

Michael Arlen devoted a book to the making of a 30-second commercial for [the Bell System] with the slogan "Reach out and touch someone".

"In thirty seconds, everybody notices everything" (Arlen, 1980: p. 211) stated Jerry Pfiffner, who was an executive vice-president of N.W. Ayer and leader of a Creative Group. They had designed the famous "Reach Out and Touch Someone" commercial advertising for AT&T's advertising campaign in 1979.  The intention was to get more people to make long distance calls. The first commercial debuted on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. https://youtu.be/OapWdclVqEY

The importance of the commercial for the Church Today

First, the Church needs to begin to reach out and bring people back to Church.  With COVID 19 and Bad Press, many people have left the Church and now need to be encouraged to come back to Church.  A Pew Research Study of 2015 found that almost 45% of the US had some ties to the Church.  In 2020 over 50% of  Congress were Catholics, 66 ?% of the Supreme Court were Catholic, and with a population greater than almost all Protestant Churches in the United States was a category called Lapsed Catholics.  People who at some time in their life were Catholic and now no longer attend Church or claim the Church.  This category is growing faster than people coming into the Church.  Brothers and sisters, we need to stop this and reach out touch some of these people with the expressed purpose to bring them back to Church not in one week or two weeks, but today.  Their salvation and ours depends on this. 

Second, missionary work is not just in third world countries anymore.  The United States is ripe for missionary work and brother and sisters you are the missionaries called to do this work.  

Romans 10  13-14

13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Mark 5:19-20:

“And he did not permit him but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.And he did not permit him but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.”

1 Peter 4:10:

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

Third, by reaching out and touching others, you are actually helping yourself.  

Matthew 25:40:

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Acts 1:8:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 13:47: 

“For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

In conclusion, the Reach Out and Touch Someone Campaign of the 1970’s was highly successful for AT&T and increased their long distance service with unbelievable success.  Why? The idea is based upon human nature, common sense, and the Holy Bible.  People like to feel wanted and needed.  By reaching out and involving people in interaction, we are doing the work of God.   By bringing people back to Church, we are doing the work of God.  Maybe then we should reach out and Touch Someone and Ask Them To Come Back To Church Today.  You will be glad you did- now and forever. Amen