Jump to content
Seriously No Politics ×

New Church Ad Campaign


Daniel Peterson

Recommended Posts

You appear to believe that obedience, humility, submissiveness, and etc., signify robotic conformity and monochrome group-think.

That doesn't appear to me to be the case.

Indeed. A few years ago I make the argument in Sunday school to a now-former housemate of mine that obedience to Gospel principles results in an increase of individuality, that disobedience is inevitably what leads to a numbing sameness. At the time, he disagreed. I spoke to him last year, and he brought up the conversation. Now married to the woman he accidentally impregnated and living overseas, he told me, with a note of sadness, that I had been exactly right.

Link to comment

I really like the ads...and the whole new mormon.org site.

Two years ago, I went to an academic conference in a city about 200km north of here, and, whilst sitting near the back of a chartered bus, I heard the very loud driver telling one of his passengers that he'd been visited by 'Mormons' recently. He talked about what nice people we are but how he could never be one since he'd have to give up TV, telephones, his car, etc. I wished I'd been sitting near the front of the bus.

A couple of years before that, I was sitting one Friday afternoon in my university office wearing shorts, a T-shirt, and no shoes. One of my mates stopped by on his way home, and we got talking about weekend plans. He complained that he had a meeting in the morning and that, to make it worse, he was going to have to dress up like a 'freaking Mormon.' I pointed to myself and asked, 'You have to wear shorts and a T-shirt?'

When I was a fulltime missionary in America, my companion and I one day knocked on a door. I was wearing my blue pinstripe suit, and he was wearing a green suit. A lady came to the door, and we introduced ourselves. She looked blank afterward, so I asked her if she'd ever heard of our faith before. She said, 'Aren't you those people who dress all in black and don't dance?'

Earlier, I had a companion who openly admitted to me that he'd chosen to be a missionary as a bit of an adventure and because he thought the Gospel wasn't a bad thing to try to share with people, though he didn't really accept it as 'true' in any meaningful way. I suggested to him that there were other ways of getting in a cheap two-year, living-away-from-home experience and further suggested that it was a bit odd to be trying to share with people something one didn't wholeheartedly endorse himself. A bit put out, he decided to consult with one of our ward members who he thought would be more sympathetic to his views. This brother wore his long hair in a ponytail, lived with a group of 'heathens' from a wannabe rock band, and worked as a bicycle courier. I still remember--and appreciate--his response: 'Dude, you're just cheating yourself. This is the most true thing I know. I love it more than life itself. You don't know what you're missing.'

Link to comment

edited after reading the ominous shutdown threat

as for the add.

I think of the parable of the sower, and if you have ever seen a farmers hand sow field you gain a better understanding.

Hand sowing a field as Jesus described, is to take a handful of seed and throw it out over the field - none of the make small hole, insert few seeds, cover small hole, tamp, water, pray - nope, just throwing of seeds almost willy-nilly on the field.

Every generation has an audience, every generation is slightly different than the one before. I would be quite displeased in the LDS Church if I thought there was a required mold. I would be even more displeased in the LDS Church if there was a "You can only share the Gospel with those that fit this mold" requirement. The Gospel is for everyone, which means different strokes for different folks, to reach some people the Church may have to produce ads that many others will complain that are too "hip".

If we are truely concerned about how the message gets out, then we might as well throw out the BoM or at least part of it i.e.

Q: Do you believe in God?

A: I do not know this God but I believe in the Great Spirit.

Response: That is God.

Are those of you who are seemingly offended by a hip ad, and a member who apparently takes non-nude photos, as equally offended that God was called the Great Spirit in the BoM?

Link to comment

DanGB gets it. He posted on the subject. If you're unable to do so, why don't you post elsewhere, on the subject of your preference?

DanGB posted what might be considered an opposing view on the subject. (I disagree with him, to a considerable extent.) But what he posted is quite okay with me. It's on topic.

WOW.

Link to comment

Big UP! to Josh Maready!!!!

I played the Josh video for my wife with no introduction. She loved it! I didn't care for it that much, but I think I could hang out with Josh all day.

I'm not a fancy art-photography guy but his fashion portfolio's were great! He has a portrait picture of the Dogg Father- Snoop Dee Oh Double Geezy; what more could we want from the new face of fancy Lower West Side NY Cosmopolitan Mormonism? We got what we paid/asked for. (Seriously. Skater- photographer with a pair of Chuck's and horned rimmed glasses? Oh yeah, we were begging for fashion semi-nudes.)

Snoop Dogg by Maready

Big UP!

Lamanite

Link to comment

You just need to accept it for what it really is!

Link to comment

I have a major issue with DanGB's mindset. Conversion is to the Gospel. Not bobby brooks, white shirts, or Provo. And converts will be fellowshipped by members, not the Elders. If converts need to understand anything, it is that the Church is not the missionaries - they are a teaching resource. Neighbors and co-workers are the Mormons - as much as, and really more than the Elders can ever be. I like the fact that the Church wants to let people in on our diversity. I like the fact that fellow acheivers with creative minds are out representing Christ and the Church. I want people to understand that they can talk to me - not wait for suits knocking on the door. Better yet, its my responsibility to make them WANT to talk to me. I like the fact that they are exposed to the fact that they need not assimilate to a specific acrhtype to join the Saints. My two cents...

Link to comment

I disagree. I'm too old now to even care about hipness, but I have had my hip moments. In fact, at times I have been on the cutting edge of hipness. I do have 7 kids from ages 16 through 36, and I get a sense of current hipness by observing them and the students in the schools where I teach. What I observe is that Facebook and YouTube-type communications are state of the art of hipness, and the Church is quite astute to exploit that style of media. It appears to me that the folks in the COB are more attuned to the trends than you give them credit for.

As for as the elders and sister missionaries...the ones who have served in our ward for the past 20 years

have on the whole been outstanding, and I have worked closely with most of them.

Bernard

I can completely agree with your response from both age and emotion! But the Church sees that it's image is hurting the numbers. Perhaps a bit to frank for many on this board, but true nonetheless.

We don't spend millions on test markets across the country if we don't see and recognize problems with the statistical data.!!!

Link to comment

I can completely agree with your response from both age and emotion! But the Church sees that it's image is hurting the numbers. Perhaps a bit to frank for many on this board, but true nonetheless.

We don't spend millions on test markets across the country if we don't see and recognize problems with the statistical data.!!!

How do you know it costs millions? I rather stick with the notion that the Church is simply keeping up

with current media trends. People in the younger age brackets are far more likely to pay attention to

this type of ad than the older "feel good" family-type spots that appealed to the previous generation.

Pretty savvy, IMO.

Bernard

Link to comment
With all the miilions we are spending on a new image, it really needs to be a coordinated and integrated effort. For all the young, articulate and "hip" skateboarders or photagraphers we put on TV commericis, it will all be a waste if we have the same trained "robot" ride up on the ten speed. That is the person who leaves the lasting image.

I would offer a different perspective.

The current TV campaign is 'branding' -- pure and simple. I don't think it is designed to elicite 'Wow! Mormons are cool...I am going to find an LDS Church and learn about it.' The campaign, at best, can only move the dial on generalized positive feelings about the LDS Church. You may recall that we Mormons have some of the highest negative opinions of almost any religion.

Research has shown that many people don't know an actual Mormon. However, when they do, positives for the Church go way up. A 'testimonial' campaign...as obviously self-serving as it is...can be a powerful way to move the dial when it comes to negative stereotypes. This campaign is a way to introduce folks to real Mormons.

That is why I don't think that the missionaries or their teaching approach is the issue. If members can meet and invite people who have been positively affected by the campaign...the missionaries will do okay.

Regards,

Six

Link to comment

But the Church sees that it's image is hurting the numbers.

Are we talking about the Church's actual image, though, or misinformed stereotypes? As I mentioned above, I met people on my mission who thought we dress all in black...even when two of us were standing on their doorstep clearly not dressed in black. Is that image of the Church 'hurting the numbers'? Quite possibly. Is it accurate? Is it more or less accurate than the ads linked to at the beginning of this thread, all of which contain real Church members?

I like the image of the Church made available in these ads (and all over mormon.org, to be honest) precisely because it looks like the Church I know. The 'images' which the ads are designed to dispel don't.

Link to comment
I took DanGB's statements as being addressed to a wider audience. Apparently not.

I can only speak for myself, not for The Wider Audience.

In any event, much of what he had to say was clearly addressed to what he called "a career paid employee of the Church." Perhaps The Wider Audience all work for the Church. I just don't know.

Link to comment

I can only speak for myself, not for The Wider Audience.

In any event, much of what he had to say was clearly addressed to what he called "a career paid employee of the Church." Perhaps The Wider Audience all work for the Church. I just don't know.

I later realized that personal reference ... and why I deleted my comment, a bit too late.

Link to comment

I like the new videos quite a lot. I don't think several of them represent the LDS church I've personally experienced (even though I was born and raised outside of Utah, myself), but I really like the direction the church is headed in.

I think the clear, non-too-subtle message is "Hi... I'm a regular, normal person just like you, with my own individuality, thoughts, feelings, hobbies, and... I'm a Mormon." Very intelligent marketing, especially in the wake of much of the bad PR the church has experienced over the last two years. And great to see the church emphasizing diversity within it's membership.

The first thing I thought of was, "Wow... I'm not sure most Mormons are like several that are portrayed in the video messages... but I wish they were! Interesting that the church seems to be portraying itself in a new light that I'm not sure is really reflective of most of it's membership or the most common elements of LDS culture..."

And my next thought was, "Hmmmm..... that isn't necessarily a bad thing... I wonder how much the church might actually be altering itself by promoting itself in this way...? I wonder if the church could actually--perhaps even unknowingly and/or unintentionally...?--affect the course of the attitudes of it's own membership through it's own advertising campaign...? That'd be cool...!"

Yeah. I like the new direction. Cool. Hip. Individual. Diverse. Almost... Unitarian (and I mean that as a compliment).

In fact, the 'community' that I'm hoping to mainstream could learn a lot from sending out that same basic, and very real, message.

Darin

P.S. I LOVE Cassandra Barney--she's been a great friend and her family is awesome, and one of the best Latter-day Saints I've known, albeit from a very non-conventional vein.

Link to comment

Hmmmm....

I couldn't help but think of Mitt Romney's next campaign for the U.S. Presidency when I read the following links on the new site:

http://mormon.org/citizenship/

Subheadings:

Good Citizens of the Earth [Environmentalism...??? Really? Droopy, are you reading this...?
:P
]

Righteousness Exalts a Nation

Pay Tribute to Caesar and to God

Political Neutrality and Civility [Hmmm... this one's hard to defend in the wake of Prop 8 without resorting to semantics ("That was a
moral
issue, not a
political
one") a distinction that seems to be meaningless to many non-Mormons]

Agents unto Ourselves

http://mormon.org/choice/

Subheadings:

Agency is Part of God
Link to comment

apart from the Josh ad,

the style of writting from the "church" rings more of a person to person relaxed conversation

"We owe a debt to our government for the roads we use, the schools our children attend, the law enforcement that keeps us safe and the other services it provides. We owe a debt to God for, well, everything."

For me, using the "well" seems casual. and make the text more digestible.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...