Mormon Commercials

     Hi, I'm Christine and I'm not a Mormon... but these people are! We have all seen them, on the television screen as well as on youtube during an advertisement slot before watching a video. This commercial ads are rather intriguing to me because I have never seen a religious affiliation create so many commercials that are viewed on normal everyday TV channels. So with all of these commercials, what message is the Church of Latter Day Saint really trying to convey? From what I understand is that they are trying to show that mormons are actually normal people just like you and I. So are they trying to fight against the stereotypical profile of a mormon? It is quite likely; to me, this whole advertising campaign is almost a strong effort from from their public relations department to create a whole new brand image around the word mormon. When most people think of the word mormon they think things such as: many wives, many children...
     The whole campaign seems effective right? Logically it very well could have worked... if not for all of the jokes and comments following people on Youtube and other sites.
     The whole, "I'm a Mormon," campaign has been the brunt of many different kinds of jokes. It was a challenge looking to find an actual commercial from the Church of Latter Day Saints, because I had to weed through all of the many videos created by users making fun of these commercials. Many users on Youtube have created, "I'm not a mormon," youtube videos. So was this attempt to create a new image for themselves really successful, or is this whole campaign a failure because of the vulnerability it has to ridicule and jokes?
     Personally, I think it was a good attempt but it came on a little too strong with the message of "We're just like everyone else." There was definite potential in this campaign... if perhaps they had worded things just a tad different and so it was not so easy to make fun of. The campaign, from what I have gathered is a failure, and could have had more success if it was thought through a little more and viewed critically first before publishing. Oh how it is so important to play the devils advocate against your own brand campaign and so you can be prepared to face ridicule such as this... it jus might save you a little face before communicating your campaign to millions. But coming from a group of mormons, I am sure no one wanted to play the role of devil anything...