It’s probably safe to say that few eyebrows are raised today when a new ad campaign for a stick of deodorant, movie or bacon-loaded burger makes its way into regular rotation on our televisions.

Advertisers need to grab their audience’s attention through the use of humour, excitement, fear, lies, or possibly a combination of two or more of these in order to sell their respective products.

There’s nothing shocking about that, but recently we have seen the rise of TV ad campaigns that expressly promote specific religions, such as Mormon.org and Scientology.org.

Get ready for “intelligent debate,” Internet.

While TV advertisements for organizations closely affiliated with specific religions are nothing new - charities have been using this angle for a long time - the recent trend of advertising religions in-and-of themselves is nearly unprecedented for the television medium.

Take, for example, The Church of Scientology’s series of TV spots featuring a cast of trendy young people turning their faces to a mysterious light, climbing and hoisting mirrors skywards while narrators offer a succession of poetic, confusing phrases about - well, about something good.

Throw in some nature footage and exceptionally high production values and you’ve got one hell of a commercial - that is, until the viewer realizes that they aren’t watching a trailer for the latest Sundance Film Festival award winner.

Mormon.org seems to be taking a different route with their campaign. Their spots are unusually long, casually paced interviews with individuals who adhere to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly referred to as the Mormon Church.

In the various monologues, subjects talk about their lives, jobs, families and interests. Each advertisement concludes with the individual saying, “I’m _______, and I’m a Mormon.”

While Scientology.org aims to attract new members with heavy doses of enigma and spectacular imagery, Mormon.org seems to be going for a down-to-earth, “See, we’re not so weird” approach.

It seems to me, however, that both campaigns are destined to fail in their attempts to connect with viewers.

First off, as a society virtually raised in front of our TV screens, we’re conditioned to see commercials as sales pitches.

While advertisers are constantly working to create commercials that appear honest, friendly and wholly un-commercial-like, wiser individuals remain suspicious of their intentions.

“ While Scientology.org aims to attract new members with heavy doses of enigma and spectacular imagery, Mormon.org seems to be going for a down to Earth, “See, we’re not so weird” approach

This means that most viewers will be instinctively skeptical of the aforementioned campaigns - and rightly so.

Even though they may not be literally “selling something,” viewers are likely to treat them as if they are.

By virtue of their respective values, both groups purport to hold knowledge of “the truth,” as do most - if not all - organized religions.

When advertisement is present, competition is reasonably implied. It seems then to become a case more of “our truth is more attractive than your truth,” rather than “our truth is the truth.”

This overt competitiveness, in my opinion, winds up undermining key values of both groups.

Questions come to mind: Why must you try so hard to make your religion appealing if it is, after all, the truth? Why not focus on informing viewers of the actual beliefs of your religion, thereby letting the power of “the truth” speak for itself? Isn’t the attractiveness of truth, after all, irrelevant in light of its truthfulness?

If there is merit to these advertisements, it seems to be in their tendency to raise questions and controversy.

There may be thousands of furious rants crammed into the dark recesses of online forums and comments sections due to this very topic, but as they increase in number, the respective religions’ websites will see more and more hits.

So, the question becomes, “Is all attention - even critical attention - beneficial for a belief system that aims to spread?”

If we see more of these types of TV spots in the future, the answer is probably “yes.”

Carson Hammond is a second-year English major at the University of Winnipeg. He has exactly zero blogs to tell you about, and no writing-related accomplishments of which to brag.

Published in Volume 66, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 2, 2011)