Faiths' ad campaigns chase after the great `I Am'

© 2011 Salt Lake Tribune

(RNS) To many viewers, the "I'm a Mormon" ad blitz from the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seemed hip, refreshing and original.

The campaign, launched last year in nine U.S. cities, generated a
lot of national buzz. Its short videos featured regular folks talking
about their lives as doctors, skateboarders, tax attorneys,
environmentalists, surfers or former felons before announcing that they
are Mormons.

Turns out, lots of other faiths take a similar tack.

Scientologists, with longtime connections in Hollywood, have
produced personal-story videos for a marketing effort known as "Meet a
Scientologist." The Episcopal Church has an "I am Episcopalian" series.
A Muslim agency links modern believers with their founder in an
"Inspired by Muhammad" push.

Catholics reach out to lapsed members in their "Catholics Come Home"
drive. Methodists seek the younger crowd by redefining what church is.

The styles and motivations for all these campaigns vary --some
clearly are proselytizing; others are correcting mistaken impressions.
But all of them follow the "I Am" national trend in advertising.

As Americans became less religious, they began to look to consumer
goods for their identities, explained Mara Einstein, a professor of
media studies at Queens College in New York. They saw themselves as the
person who used a "PC" or a "Mac," drove a Volkswagen or a BMW or sipped
a Starbucks latte.

That personal approach eventually circled back to spirituality.
Religious groups began trying to tell potential members that theirs was
a faith for someone who looked and acted like themselves, Einstein said.

The message of these ads is not just that we -- Mormons, Methodists,
Muslims -- are normal, said Einstein, who wrote "Brands of Faith:
Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age." It's that "we are you."