On Mormons and other thoughts for a Wednesday evening

*Now that two Mormons are among the candidates for the Republican nomination for president, the church is rolling out nationally the brand campaign it launched in a few test markets, including Pittsburgh, last year. You can read my thoughts at the time. (And some more thoughts here.)

*I used this blog post about Cisco's new online newsroom to explain brand journalism to a colleague outside of PR. A great example of this emerging concept.

*Gini Dietrich at Spin Sucks writes that PR people need to demonstrate their value to their employers by, you know, actually understanding their organization's business goals and finding ways to help meet them. It seems like a no-brainer unless you've spent time with old-school PR folks who see what Dietrich describes as the domain of marketers, and that there should be a high wall between marketing and PR. It's outdated thinking that will consign much of our profession to the dustbin.

Branding the faith

KDKA-TV and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review each have a take on the advertising campaign being tested by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- the Mormons -- in several markets including Pittsburgh. Each of these ads -- which I find to be compelling -- feature a person discussing their career, their family, and their outlook on life, and each one ends with the subject giving his or her name and saying, "and I'm a Mormon."

I love this quote in the Trib about the ads from a religion professor:

″Despite the attempt to show next-door, neighbor-friendly (people)... are any of them unemployed, living in retirement homes or extended care facilities?″ he said. ″I know of very few Mormons who have tattoos or body piercings.″ (link)

Unemployed? Yes, that's the sunny message a religion wants to convey to nonbelievers: "Hey, we're just as miserable as you." Besides, I suspect the point of the ads is not just to portray Mormons as regular folks, but to show that Mormons are a far more diverse bunch than what most people imagine. The ads feature believers who are ethnically diverse and from varying professions and lifestyles. In other words, we're not all the Osmonds and Mitt Romney.

Speaking of Mitt Romney, this KDKA story (via @JonDelano) questions whether the ads are meant to help pave the way for the Romney's presidential candidacy. That's a bit too conspiratorial for my taste, though it's certainly not impossible, the church's protestations notwithstanding. Although I trust KDKA's motives in raising the question, that theory has a whiff of prejudice, as though Romney is the candidate of a religion and not a political party. (The same suspicion that JFK had to overcome as the nation's first Catholic president, a comparison often made when discussing Romney.)

However, I would not be surprised if the church, anticipating that Romney's presumed presidential run will again put Mormonism in the spotlight, wants to start answering questions about the faith now and on its own terms. The church may be less concerned with dispelling doubts about Romney than about making it easier for millions of other believers to go about their lives while one of their most famous brethern tries to make history.