The theme of a new ad campaign playing in New York City is, “I am a
Mormon” and profiles individual members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Folks in the Big Apple
are sure to notice the ads. They’re placed in and on subways, taxi cabs
and even on giant video billboards in iconic Times Square.
The campaign is produced by the church. It has been on the web at www.mormon.org for a year now and was “tested” in nine US cities before being quietly rolled out this week in New York City.
It
appears to be built on another campaign that was used in Texas
following the raid on the FLDS ranch near Eldorado. Those ads featured
prominent Texans who were also Mormon. But there are no famous faces in
the new ads, just everyday people who are profiled as wholesome, kind
and caring members of their church and community,.
All this comes
at a time of heightened interest in Mormons that has followed the
critical success of the irreverent and sometimes vulgar Broadway
musical, “The Book of Mormon.” The musical took home nine Tony awards
last Sunday and the cast recording is No. 3 on Billboard’s album chart. It
was even the inspiration for the cover of a recent Newsweek magazine.
