Analysis of the upcoming "Truth Restored" campaign
Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:57 pm
In the Terrestrial Forum, Polygamy Porter made reference to the church's newest campaign, "Truth Restored." He's totally convinced that it'll backfire. You can see two apostles (Scott and Ballard) and two Seventies explain the program on video here.
For those who don't want to watch the video (It's almost 39 minutes long), it explains that the church is about to go full-force on an all-out media blitz: Billboards, magazine ads, T.V. spots, and Internet banner ads will all be utilized. They'll all focus on the big questions that have plagued mankind since the beginning of time, such as "Does God care about me?" and "Why am I here?", etc. The ads will then show the church's name and the url Mormon.org which will be redesigned to provide the answers asked in the ads.
The GAs in the video then essentially ask the members to be prepared for inquiries about the church, then request them to act as resources for further information, missionary referrals, or referrals to Mormon.org. They also ask the members to be sure to greet and welcome any curious visitors who arrive in church.
One interesting thing they're going to do is provide referral cards which members can hand to inquirers and other acquaintances. The cards will have the church's name and, again the Mormon.org URL.
Phase II, which will come about a few months later, will feature (in TV ads, perhaps?) testimonies from recent converts.
Sounds reasonable to me. Every religious and/or business entity must grow to survive, so I'm not at all surprised that they'd embark on an aggressive promotion campaign such as this. The only surprise for me is that they didn't do it sooner. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it's because they're finally finding out that tracting just isn't effective.
Another thing which impressed me was how little effort they asked from the members this time. Up 'till now, they've browbeaten the missionaries and the members into simply working harder (not smarter) to get people into the church by whatever means necessary. Now, however, it looks like they finally decided to pony up a little of their own money and/or resources to help the members finally do what's always been demanded of them. Either that, or they've finally figured out that the endless guilt trips simply aren't doing the job.
Again, Polygamy Porter seems dead-set that the program will backfire. Me, I'm not so sure. Sure, lots of people will become exposed to Mormonism as a result of this, but the key ingredient of the program--looking for more information on the Internet--might have the opposite effect in a great majority of cases. In other words, people initially going to Mormon.org for information might wind up doing an additional google search, then that'll be all she wrote.
So, in the end, will it result in more new members? Not a doubt in my mind. However, I believe that many, many more people will discover the truth about it instead, and as a result will be non-Mormon not due to ignorance this time but due to choice. I also believe that many formerly believing Mormons will figure out that there's information about their church on the Internet to be had, and like the investigators will do one google search too many and leave.
Therefore, MY PREDICTION IS THIS: I think the campaign will result in a gain of many new faces, but a loss of many old ones. I'm sure it will result in a net positive growth for the church overall, but far, far smaller than what the leaders hope for and way, way lower than the monetary investment was worth.
For those who don't want to watch the video (It's almost 39 minutes long), it explains that the church is about to go full-force on an all-out media blitz: Billboards, magazine ads, T.V. spots, and Internet banner ads will all be utilized. They'll all focus on the big questions that have plagued mankind since the beginning of time, such as "Does God care about me?" and "Why am I here?", etc. The ads will then show the church's name and the url Mormon.org which will be redesigned to provide the answers asked in the ads.
The GAs in the video then essentially ask the members to be prepared for inquiries about the church, then request them to act as resources for further information, missionary referrals, or referrals to Mormon.org. They also ask the members to be sure to greet and welcome any curious visitors who arrive in church.
One interesting thing they're going to do is provide referral cards which members can hand to inquirers and other acquaintances. The cards will have the church's name and, again the Mormon.org URL.
Phase II, which will come about a few months later, will feature (in TV ads, perhaps?) testimonies from recent converts.
Sounds reasonable to me. Every religious and/or business entity must grow to survive, so I'm not at all surprised that they'd embark on an aggressive promotion campaign such as this. The only surprise for me is that they didn't do it sooner. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it's because they're finally finding out that tracting just isn't effective.
Another thing which impressed me was how little effort they asked from the members this time. Up 'till now, they've browbeaten the missionaries and the members into simply working harder (not smarter) to get people into the church by whatever means necessary. Now, however, it looks like they finally decided to pony up a little of their own money and/or resources to help the members finally do what's always been demanded of them. Either that, or they've finally figured out that the endless guilt trips simply aren't doing the job.
Again, Polygamy Porter seems dead-set that the program will backfire. Me, I'm not so sure. Sure, lots of people will become exposed to Mormonism as a result of this, but the key ingredient of the program--looking for more information on the Internet--might have the opposite effect in a great majority of cases. In other words, people initially going to Mormon.org for information might wind up doing an additional google search, then that'll be all she wrote.
So, in the end, will it result in more new members? Not a doubt in my mind. However, I believe that many, many more people will discover the truth about it instead, and as a result will be non-Mormon not due to ignorance this time but due to choice. I also believe that many formerly believing Mormons will figure out that there's information about their church on the Internet to be had, and like the investigators will do one google search too many and leave.
Therefore, MY PREDICTION IS THIS: I think the campaign will result in a gain of many new faces, but a loss of many old ones. I'm sure it will result in a net positive growth for the church overall, but far, far smaller than what the leaders hope for and way, way lower than the monetary investment was worth.