Thirst for LDS-oriented products burgeoning

Aside from financial incentives, the quest to produce meaningful art for a wider market comes in part, Miller believes, from a sermon delivered more than 20 years ago by then-LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball, who asked church members to perfect their skills in order to produce great masterpieces of all kinds that would be recognized by the world at large.

"In talking to people who want me to invest or use me as a sounding board, I've seen that speech in four or five day planners. I'm motivated by what President Kimball said, but it's almost like it has become canonized to the LDS artists."

As more filmmakers enter the fray, some have wondered what the result will be in terms of quality. Miller said while the film's storyline virtually ensures that viewers will feel that LDS history has been dealt with respectfully, marketing to Latter-day Saints can become dicey when there is a fine line between the sacred and the secular.

Fugal said LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley's ability to laugh and his encouragement for members to lose a "holier than thou" attitude may have something to do with a growing acceptance among Latter-day Saints of self-deprecating humor in movies and books geared to them.

"I love people who are confident enough in themselves that they can laugh at themselves. I think that's evolved only in the past couple of years — we're confident" in unprecedented ways, she said, in large measure owing to the success of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. "We had negative press for so long," yet during the Olympics, much of the national and international media was saying, "rah, rah, Mormons," Fugal said.

But Gary Rhoads, a professor of marketing at Brigham Young University, doesn't believe Latter-day Saints can laugh at themselves very well.

"Sometimes, particularly I think in Utah County, we're just so serious we don't let our hair down. I think it goes back to a strong cultural value that being light-minded is not looked upon favorably."

He cited the recent flap on campus over T-shirts that read "I Can't. . . . I'm Mormon." Though Rhoads and some of his students found it funny, managers of the campus newspaper pulled an advertisement for the shirts after numerous complaints that it was offensive. Some felt the slogan implied wearers wished they could drink, smoke or have casual sex but were prevented only because they are Latter-day Saints.

Marketers don't have a clearly demarcated line for what is acceptable and what isn't, he said, and marketers will no doubt continue to push in order to find it.

The same may be true for commercial products that some may see as exploitative.