When The Book of Mormon was prepping for its first performance, a lot of folks thought the Mormon Church was prepping for a protest to take place outside the theater.

Many industry insiders expected picketing and heckling and maybe even a boycott or two.

But the first performance came and went and offended many . . . but there were no protests to be found.  And no real statements of outrage or anger from the Mormon Church either.

Then I noticed something happening around Times Square.

Ads for the church start popping up on billboards and phone kiosks.  Coincidence?  No way in Spooky-Mormon Hell Dream.

The Church knew that thousands of people were being exposed to their teachings (admittedly in a backhanded way), and that some might be curious to know more.

And they were right.  Heck, I even googled some of the Mormon history to understand what those planets were all about.

Their positive passive response was perfect.

Well, they just one-upped themselves.  Check out the image in this blog.  It’s of an ad they placed in the Chicago Playbill for . . . yep . . . The Book of Mormon.  If you can’t read it, it says, “You’ve seen the play.  Now read the book.”  (And the book they’re talking about is the real Book of Mormon.)  Rather than railing against the satirical juggernaut that is BOM, they decided to use its power to get people to learn more about what they really are.

Advertising isn’t effective when you’re on the defensive.  Don’t waste time trying to “protest” what you’re not.  Your show, your product, and yep, even your religion is more successfully marketed when you are what you are and are happy about it.

 

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