These ads for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known as the Mormon Church), aired last year in specific markets.
“Eternal family”…”softened my heart”
“Welcome home”
“Return to be with God”…”was I with God before?”
“Families should be eternal”
“How could it be cut off by death?”
The high-contrast black-and-white footage, stark white background and gentle soundtrack do a great job of standing out from the business-as-usual ad clutter. The most emotionally stirring thing about these ads is the “performance” of the actors; but that’s because they weren’t actors. Truth be told, none of them even had a script. They simply retold their real conversion stories while sitting in front of a camera. There’s no pretense, no sales pitch, nothing superficial. Just real people with real questions and trials, all longing for truth. I’m familiar with the background on these ads because I was lucky enough to get a little behind-the-scenes info from my former professors, Kevin Kelly, Adrian Pulfer and Steve Wonderli, while they were working on the campaign.
At the end of each ad, the viewer is introduced to mormon.org, where one can learn about our basic beliefs. The tagline “Truth Restored” refers to the restoration of the same Church Jesus Christ established during his ministry in Jerusalem. Hence, the name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Any thoughts on these?
