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SALT LAKE CITY -- The LDS church's "I'm a Mormon" campaign is successful because it shows Latter-day Saints as they really are, according to a recent blog from the church's Public Affairs managing director.
Michael Otterson writes in his "On Faith" blog in the Washington Post that the ads show average people who try their best to follow Jesus Christ.
"The Mormons in these spots all believe this in the deepest part of their soul," he writes. "They don't necessarily wear it on their sleeves. They may not push it down your throat. But if they say with conviction, ‘I'm a Mormon,' you can count on the fact that it's more to them than just a label."
The campaign expanded at the beginning of October to run in 12 major cities in the U.S. and Australia. It includes "average people," plus some well-known names, including musician Brandon Flowers and former TV newswoman Jane Clayson Johnson.
The "I'm a Mormon" campaign is working today for the same reason the original Homefront spots worked 30 years ago. They are real. - Michael Otterson
Otterson recounts the church's successful "Homefront" series of TV ads from the 1970s. He says TV deregulation and other factors reduced the amount of free airtime offered for those ads, so the church looked at creating a new campaign.
"Over the next 20 years a variety of other approaches were tried with varying degrees of success," he writes. The "I'm a Mormon" campaign was formulated in 2009 in response to research showing many people were unfamiliar with the church.
Otterson wrote, "Since the series was launched last year, traffic to Mormon.org, the Internet site for visitors, has tripled."
You can read the blog here.
