Church Buys Ads In 'Book Of Mormon' Playbill In L.A.

[ERayR]

I also think it has a "product placement" in The Expendables.

Looks like solid and effective ads to me.

[Stargazer]

I'm going to get flak for saying this, but I don't think church funds or tithing should ever be used for costly ads. I see people giving up alot to be able to pay their tithing at the end of the year. When I worked at a credit union some would come and get loans for tithing settlement! This has tainted my feelings I guess.

Putting ads in a playbill does not strike me as costly. It is done by the theater in order to help defray the costs of the bill. It probably cost less than a thousand dollars. In contrast, have you not seen any of those TV ads the Church has put out over the years? On national television? Talk about straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Though I expect you think the Church shouldn't have done those, either. Yes, the Church should just shut its mouth and let the world trample sacred things without any response.

Are you sure you want to stand in the windows of the great and spacious building, and belittle those who try their best to keep the commandments of God?

One of my former bishops, who is now a multi-millionaire, once during a brief business-reversal preferred to borrow money to bring his tithing current, rather than be a part-tithe-payer that year. He considered it a necessary action to keep his covenants.

In the April 1994 General Conference Elder Dallin H. Oaks said (http://www.lds.org/ensign/1994/05/tithing?lang=eng):

Tithing is a commandment with a promise. The words of Malachi, reaffirmed by the Savior, promise those who bring their tithes into the storehouse that the Lord will open “the windows of heaven, and pour [them] out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” The promised blessings are temporal and spiritual. The Lord promises to “rebuke the devourer,” and he also promises tithe payers that “all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land” (3 Ne. 24:10–12; see Mal. 3:10–12).

In the same article he recounted this story originally told by Joseph F. Smith:

“My mother was a widow, with a large family to provide for. One spring when we opened our potato pits she had her boys get a load of the best potatoes, and she took them to the tithing office; potatoes were scarce that season. I was a little boy at the time, and drove the team. When we drove up to the steps of the tithing office, ready to unload the potatoes, one of the clerks came out and said to my mother, ‘Widow Smith, it’s a shame that you should have to pay tithing.’ … He chided my mother for paying her tithing, called her anything but wise or prudent; and said there were others who were strong and able to work that were supported from the tithing office. My mother turned upon him and said: ‘William, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold His blessings from me. I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. By keeping this and other laws, I expect to prosper and to be able to provide for my family’” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1900, p. 48).

Elder Oaks does not mention that in the original story as told by Elder Smith, the tithing clerk in question later apostatized, which he counted as no surprise, given his attitude as expressed here.

[Deborah]

If nothing else this shows we have a sense of humor about ourselves, and backbone.

[ERayR]

If nothing else this shows we have a sense of humor about ourselves, and backbone.

I liked the "I've read the book". Too bad there isn't a way to set up a table and sell/distribute books of Mormon.

[KevinG]

I liked the "I've read the book". Too bad there isn't a way to set up a table and sell/distribute books of Mormon.

Hmmm... Missionaries with stacks of the Book of Mormon on nearby street corners?

[TAO]

Oooh... that tithing story is a keeper!

[ERayR]

Hmmm... Missionaries with stacks of the Book of Mormon on nearby street corners?

Yes it could work. Can somebody get this suggestion to the local ward missionaries.

[TAO]

Hmmm... Missionaries with stacks of the Book of Mormon on nearby street corners?

Did you get this idea from Priesthood meeting? 0.o

[The Nehor]

A billboard or an ad will not even come close to first hand experience that the non mormon will talk about not an ad. We don't need to place costly ads for this. Plus it only, IMHO, makes people suspicious if we need to advertise.

As a former missionary anything that means less Knocking doors and more teaching is worth it. We need to adapt. Tracting is beoming less and less effective as culture changes. The moderately respectable door to door salesman is gone and now we are lumped in with those slave labor magazine scams, pesticide salesmen, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

[Tacenda]

As a former missionary anything that means less Knocking doors and more teaching is worth it. We need to adapt. Tracting is beoming less and less effective as culture changes. The moderately respectable door to door salesman is gone and now we are lumped in with those slave labor magazine scams, pesticide salesmen, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

I accidently gave you a rep point, but will say, point well taken. I believe you are right on in saying the door to door method isn't working as well now. Maybe I was wrong on my comment of the church advertising. But there must be a cost effective way to do this.

[The Nehor]

I accidently gave you a rep point, but will say point well taken. I believe you are right on in saying the door to door method isn't working as well now. Maybe I was wrong my comment on the church advertising. But there must be a cost effective way to do this.

That is okay. I am pretty sure most of my rep points come from people angrily trying to hit quote and accidentally hitting rep point instead.

As for the More cost effective way we have one but we can't seem to get the members to do missionary work....and I include myself in that group. I have taken the missionaries out almost every week for the last three years and still have not come up with a referral.

[KevinG]

As a former missionary anything that means less Knocking doors and more teaching is worth it. We need to adapt. Tracting is beoming less and less effective as culture changes. The moderately respectable door to door salesman is gone and now we are lumped in with those slave labor magazine scams, pesticide salesmen, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Missionaries much prefer the Mary Kay approach to the Fuller Brush Salesman approach.

[KevinG]

I accidently gave you a rep point, but will say, point well taken. I believe you are right on in saying the door to door method isn't working as well now. Maybe I was wrong on my comment of the church advertising. But there must be a cost effective way to do this.

$148,409 to reach 3,000,000 people each month (assuming they bought the full year of ads). http://cloud.playbil...2012magrate.pdf Roughly a nickel per contact.

Compare that to any other missionary contact or cost of advertisement for a captive and selected audience and you have a pretty good bargain.

[ERayR]

I accidently gave you a rep point, but will say, point well taken. I believe you are right on in saying the door to door method isn't working as well now. Maybe I was wrong on my comment of the church advertising. But there must be a cost effective way to do this.

There is its called target audience and these playbills are perfect, The audience is already interested in the Book of Mormon.

[Judd]

For this bagging on tracting it most certainly is less effective if you don't do it right. That being said, doing it right isn't necessarily easy. Also, there's always time for tracing. Also, this varies greatly by mission and even within missions. Also, if we shoot down tracting and this playbill ad (I'm assuming to a larger extent this would include other kinds of media advertisement), and the membership itself isn't generating referrals as it should, then what options are proposed that we invest our efforts into?

[Stargazer]

As a former missionary anything that means less Knocking doors and more teaching is worth it. We need to adapt. Tracting is beoming less and less effective as culture changes. The moderately respectable door to door salesman is gone and now we are lumped in with those slave labor magazine scams, pesticide salesmen, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

I, on the other hand, intentionally gave you a rep point for this.

But TN, we were already lumped in with the JWs. In my mission to German in 1972-74, we could always tell when the JWs had hit a neighborhood ahead of us, because people would take one look and slam their doors, usually without saying a word. I don't know what the JWs were doing to engender the hostility, but we would change venues when this happened.

[cinepro]

$148,409 to reach 3,000,000 people each month (assuming they bought the full year of ads). http://cloud.playbil...2012magrate.pdf Roughly a nickel per contact.

Compare that to any other missionary contact or cost of advertisement for a captive and selected audience and you have a pretty good bargain.

The article said it was just for the Los Angeles show, so that's something like 80 shows in a 2700 seat theater, so 216,000 people might see it.

Of course, the after "The Book of Mormon" leaves, Donnie and Marie are starting their Christmas show in the same theater, so maybe they will leave the ad running...?

[tyler90az]

Good move!

"The next thing we would say is then read the book." Jeffery R. Holland talking at Harvard

[tyler90az]

As a former missionary anything that means less Knocking doors and more teaching is worth it. We need to adapt. Tracting is beoming less and less effective as culture changes. The moderately respectable door to door salesman is gone and now we are lumped in with those slave labor magazine scams, pesticide salesmen, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The new tactic has been having some success. They now knock on doors and ask if they would like to say a prayer.

[The Nehor]

The new tactic has been having some success. They now knock on doors and ask if they would like to say a prayer.

New? I tried that tact on my mission with very mixed results. It did not yield much more success on average then tracting.

[tyler90az]

When was your mission? As of late interreligious anything has become big.

[KevinG]

The article said it was just for the Los Angeles show, so that's something like 80 shows in a 2700 seat theater, so 216,000 people might see it.

Of course, the after "The Book of Mormon" leaves, Donnie and Marie are starting their Christmas show in the same theater, so maybe they will leave the ad running...?

Then scale the cost accordingly. The rates I quoted are for circulation of 3 million. Again roughly a nickel per contact puts that at $10,000 to contact 200,000 people. Do you suppose a missionary contacts that many in a 2 year mission?

[Garden Girl]

Hmmm... Missionaries with stacks of the Book of Mormon on nearby street corners?

When I worked at San Fran St Univ., it was and still is known as a hot bed of liberalism, socialism, and any other "ism" you can think of. But there were these two LDS missionaries who went into the Lion's Den so to speak at least a couple times a week by bringing this very large cardboard replica of the Book of Mormon, a card table, and a stack of BoMs that they set up about noon on the "quad" outside the Student Union. They'd put up their display, and one of them would simply start preaching. The quad was noted for having speakers on "soap boxes" during the noon hour... anyway, students would start gathering around, listening to the mish's, who soon had a sizable crowd encircling them, listening to them... one of the mish's was very good at answering questions from the crowd... surprisingly, his manner was such that he evoked good will and so was rarely mocked.

I was inactive at the time, and I don't know how successful they were, but I always admired their spirit to venture onto the campus the way they did. After about an hour kids would start off to class and they'd pack up and leave...

Gosh, that was about 25 years ago... what a great memory that is, particularly since I am now active again....

GG

[The Nehor]

When was your mission? As of late interreligious anything has become big.

'98-'00

[DH]

I must say you are wrong here. You make it into lemon cake... or lemon pie! So delicious! =D <-- As you can tell, TAO likes eating dessert a bit too much ;-).

Pretty much lemon anything is delicious, as far as I am concerned! Since I don't believe in any "one true way to consume lemons," you could consider me a lemon loving universalist.