Mormons Use PR Campaign to Boost Their Image

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The Utah-based Mormon church is running a television ad campaign to try and address stereotypes about their adherents. The TV ads show regular people doing regular things, and then saying they are Mormon. The ads attempt to influence how people think of the religion, and drive traffic to the church's official web site, Mormon.org. The church denies that the campaign is a response to the backlash the Mormon church received over its support of California's Proposition 8, which overturned a state Supreme Court ruling that makes gay marriage legal. After Proposition 8 passed, boycotts erupted against businesses owned by Mormons who donated to help pass the measure. Protests eventually spread to all 50 states, cities in Canada, Australia and England. The church also denies that the campaign has anything to do with a possible run by Mitt Romney for the presidency in 2012. (Romney is a Mormon.) The church aims to present 90 different ads between now and the end of they year, so viewers constantly see different people in the ads. The ads are being test marketed in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jacksonville, Florida, Rochester, New York and Tucson, Arizona.