Mormon TV Ads I Am a Mormon

Mormon TV Ads I Am a Mormon The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon Church, has recently launched as series of advertisements in select American cities which highlight an individual member of the Church. Individual members are encouraged to create a video profile in order to be used as an advertisement for the Mormon Church and its members.

The idea behind the campaign is to present the members of the Mormon Church as regular, ordinary Americans and not members of some strange religious cult. This seems to be a response to both the recent legal troubles of Mormon-offshoot organizations as well as the rise of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is a member of the Mormon Church.

One particular advertisement which has aired on television is the profile of pro-surfer Joy Monahan who provides a profile in which she describes herself as "2008 woman's long board world champion." (Goodwin, 2010) Much of her story is about her love of surfing, how she developed it, and how she has been competing in surfing competitions.

As a champion she is presented as remarkably down-to-earth, admitting that after her winning the 2008 world's championship, she had to go back to school and "do chores, clean up my house and cook dinner." (Goodwin, 2010) After discussing her life, her family, and her surfing, Joy Monahan closes the advertisement by stating "My name is Joy Monahan, I'm a professional long board surfer, and I'm a Mormon." (Goodwin, 2010) This advertisement is particularly effective as is also discusses Joy's belief that like surfing, in life one needs to be positioned in the right place at the right time.

This implies that being in the Mormon Church is a way to position oneself in the right place. It may be simply that Joy Monahan feels that the Mormon Church has put her into the right place at the right time, but by using this advertisement, the Church seems to be endorsing the idea.

While the advertisement makes no mention of the Church organization, it does present a successful, modern, professional woman, who seems very happy and content, has a rich and full family life, in other words, just a normal, average American who also happens to be a Mormon. At a time when most Americans only see Mormons as a religious cult that allows men to have many wives, this advertisement campaign demonstrates that this image is not only outdated, but completely false.

Mormonism comes across as nothing out of the ordinary, just another religion, as if the person featured is telling that they are Catholic, Lutheran, or Jewish. The fact that the people in the advertisements are Mormons is only disclosed at the end, almost as an afterthought. This would seem to imply that the purpose of the ad campaign is to present the members of the Mormon Church as regular people, and therefore the.