A marketing campaign put on by the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) and other Christian groups in early 2002. The simple slogan I Found It was printed on flyers, silkscreened on bright orange shirts, and scribbled on chalkboards. Students wondered what the I Found It slogan meant and what it was trying to sell. After weeks of masking the campus with their slogan and keeping their interest a secret, the Christian organization revealed that what they found was Jesus Christ.

Whether or not the campaign managed to convert students is hard to say, but it kept students talking and interested in the I Found It phenomenon. The campaign was spoofed by the humorous AS Papers publication The Sneeze. There was also a shirt by an anonymous designer that simply said I Smoked It.



A couple of the parodies that were spotted include:
     I lost it. (in the insane sense)
     I lost it at UC Davis. (in the virginity sense)
     I smoked it. (In the smoking marijuana sense)

Those who observed the campaign may have also noticed that when the 2002 campaign was over, the campus was littered with bright orange scraps of paper and broken balloons. SPAC received several complaints about this, and reportedly held a meeting with organizers about it.

Two years before the I Found It campaign, the CCC had a nearly identical campaign slogan, I agree with Jessica: Black text on lime green. This campaign culminated with a similar event, where the speaker was a woman, well, named Jessica. It was not as ubiquitous as the I Found It campaign.

According to the CCCs http://www.demossnewspond.com/ccci/presskit/execprofiles.htm website newsroom, I Found It is a registered trademark. According to the http://www.uspto.gov US Patent and Trademark Office, this http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?fdoc&statef9tmim.2.4 registration is http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?fhelp&statef9tmim.2.4#FAQ_DEAD Dead.
Sadly due to policy you will need to run your own search as they expire.~Dave

 2007 I found it too campaign 

http://ifoundittoo.com/ Website

Media Coverage: The California Aggie Aggie http://www.californiaaggie.com/news/2007/05/07/CampusNews/i.Found.It.Too.Campaign.Provokes.Controversy.Debate2896327.shtml article

 2007 Parodies 
I Found it too... NOT! Sponsored by AGASA.
Some of the discussion regarding AGASAs parody can be seen on the http://community.livejournal.com/ucdavis/3763244.html davis communitys livejournal

ALSO, some facebook.com groups like http://ucdavis.facebook.com/group.php?gid2301308591 Pipe Down, You Didnt Find Shit have developed to counter this campaign.

 Sponsoring organizations 

  Campus Crusade for Christ CCC http://www.kenandamy.com/prayerletters/March%2042007.pdf Newsletter for March 31, 2007.
  Davis Christian Fellowship

I saw the bumper sticker (black on yellow) from the original campaign many times around the Portland, OR area.  Someone came up with a great variation (rejoinder) on the theme:  I Found It, and underneath (in small letters) and now my finger stinks

The I Found It campaign is not a UC Davis invention, nor is it new...  A Christian group called Campus Crusade for Christ Campus Crusade ran a huge media campaign in 1976 and published the slogan on bulletin boards, bumper stickers, and pins...  I remember seeing the bumper sticker I Lost It when I was a kid, and asking my mom what it meant.  I always thought it meant losing the Christian religion, not losing your mind.   Users/SummerSong

My high school did a similar ploy when I was there; the shirts said I agree with Jason.  Jason was a local youth leader who came to speak on the last day of the campaign.  Problem was, the whole school thought the campaign had something to do with our rivalry game at the end of the week, and that whoever Jason was, he had something against the game. Users/AllisonEriksen

This campaign deserves a high shadyness rating. It is deceitful. Obscuring the truth is deceit and so too is using the pronoun it to intentially hide the meaning jesus. This tactic is OK for commercial advertising campaigns because they dont sell a way of life. However, selling a good lifestyle shouldnt involve obfuscation and propaganda. In my opinion, hiding the truth shouldnt mesh with christianity, yet with this campaign it does. Why not be honest and say what is meant, I found Jesus.  Shadyness.

As an aside note, after the ebay it campaign doesnt this liken jesus to a cheap plastic figurine purchased on ebay? no?
 A little, but honestly I rather have it than a religious faith. Personally I dont see why people were not upfront about this, anyone want to flashmob the next event they have, just to complain about not getting enough of it, or wanting more of it, or how it tastes so good, feels so fine, etc. ~Dave

I wikied it. ~Dave

20070430 17:23:00 nbsp I Photographed It? Users/JasonAller

 ~This doesnt show on the US Patent and Trademark Office searches. ~Dave
  ~ David Grundler doesnt show up on US Patent and Trademark Office http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?ftoc&statef9tmim.1.1&p_searchsearchss&p_L50&BackReference&p_pluralyes&p_s_PARA1&p_tagrepl%7E%3APARA1%24LD&exprPARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2David+Grundler&p_tagrepl%7E%3APARA2%24ALL&p_op_ALLADJ&a_defaultsearch&a_searchSubmit+Query&a_searchSubmit+Query searches.
   ~Thank goodness!  How much would that suck to have your name trademarked by someone else?
   ~Dang, I need to trademark the Tilde, but I am sure Coke^tm^ has it already. ~Dave

20070430 18:06:41 nbsp I popped it. Users/GregWebb

20070501 22:21:30 nbsp As to the question about this campaigns success, I can tell you that it is very successful. Our point is not to convert people, we are trying to introduce people to something that has changed our lives. We are not forcing it on anyone, we are inviting people to ask questions. As to the shadyness claim... no, we are not trying to deceive anyone. The whole point is for people to ask us about it. If we wore shirts that said I found Jesus, would any of you listen to anything we had to say? So if youre open to serious conversation about who Jesus is (or isnt) and what all this means, stop by the table on the quad.  Users/lauren

20070502 01:35:29 nbsp Someone in a lime green shirt asked me today, on the MU patio, what was going on while the UCD May 1, 2007: Day of Action May Day rally was occurring. I told him the issues that were being protested and he nodded along and seemed rather apathetic or nonsupportive. I mentioned that, since green and white were the suggested colors to were in the May Day event that the lime green shirt folks should join us, especially on issues of illegal immigration, as Leviticus 3334 states, When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your nativeborn. Love him as yourself. The guy I talked to was not so enthused to take a biblical stance that countered conservative values and walked off.  Users/RobRoy

20070502 01:38:42 nbsp I understand the desire for church. It is a melding of community and fear of death. But this Ifoundittoo mumbo gumbo is typical Christian trickery of hiding the Jesus to lure in those that shy away from religion. In my childhood to teenage years I went to church over a thousand times, I know how they operate. I support your right to have the crutch of religion. But being forthright about what the real message is would be more respectful to the campus community. This is just like the Porn Nation event from early 2006. It was a Christian event but it was not marketed as such, they wanted you to show up, lured in by sex, and then be forced to listen to someones sermon of finding Jesus. No thanks; crusades are for insecure, accepting the world as the place that God made and converting those to be like them as a way of selfjustification. Id much rather march in a revolution, because do you really want to worship a God that created a world with George Bush as its leader? Users/RobRoy
  I kind of sympathize with this kind of campaign.  Its hard to start a conversation about faith, and they mainly use this as a way to start a dialog with people.  Its easier to start talking about my Discordian faith than my Christian faith, because people have less preconceptions.  Among those preconceptions that God appoints the leaders of this world.  Come on Rob, the founders of this country got over the whole divine right of kings thing, and decided that humans appoint their own leaders.  Im sure you can come to that conclusion as well.  They should of course support our rally too, as they are already correctly dressed.   Users/BrentLaabs

20070502 03:19:26 nbsp Well, I know that God does not choose our leaders  but that is because I do not believe in God. But, the Bible can contradict this  as it is ALL Gods plan. Did God give us free will? The first few chapters of Genesis would lead one to believe so but the Bible is full of rhetoric stating that god plans everything. I dont want to get into a theological debate. All religions are the same to me  suspensions of logical disbelief to get us thru our fear of death. But if that is what someone needs to get thru the day, whatevs. It is the bright green papers, the ganglike congregation of Tshirts and the coy advertising that annoys me. I know that I have annoyed many folks, knocking on their doors asking for a vote  but when I do, I say my cause forthright. I am not ambiguous, but with this campaign it makes me wonder, is Christ something to be ashamed of, because if so, the rooster crows three times for the lime shirted Peters. Users/RobRoy

20070502 03:39:30 nbsp I have this burning desire to film semimalicious acts on some of their folk, A la Messin with Sasquatch... but I always stop short... Users/CarlosOverstreet
   While there are some Pentacostals in CCC, they dont even approach a majority.  Users/WilliamLewis wl
   Yeah, I just thought it sounded better than Evangelical in that phrase. Users/CarlosOverstreet

20070507 21:04:53 nbsp Theres nothing to find. Users/DanXie

20070508 18:25:23 nbsp I dislike the it conotation, I could have sworn that jesus was male... Users/StevenDaubert

20070509 19:04:47 nbsp Im pretty sure it refers to a personal relationship with God, thus it isnt used as a pronoun referring to Jesus, but the noun relationship. Users/EvLiu

20090825 10:59:22 nbsp I was in middle school in Denver in 1976 when this campaign first launched.  Had great fun calling the 800 number and signing up all my Jewish frieds to receive the campaign kit, phone calls and other junk. Hilarious! Users/Judas

20100914 23:14:06 nbsp Actually, I Found It started even before 76 if memory serves because my aunt and I were recruited and it was before I graduated HS so it had to be before that. I also remember they were into record burning the whole you can hear the devils message when you play it enter rock groups name here backwards, subliminal messages in just about EVERYthing... blah, blah, blah ad nauseum... Users/aleabethlanaykra
