New LDS ad campaign touts the 'Truth Restored'

A new advertising campaign for the LDS Church that has been

test-marketed in selected areas looks to focus public attention on

"Truth Restored" as an answer to life's greatest questions.

With the 178th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints set to begin Saturday, church leaders will focus

on specific doctrinal issues for church members. But the new ad

campaign is designed to reach those who know little or nothing about

the faith.

Developed by the church in conjunction with Brigham Young University's

advertising department, the ads — inside publications such as Time,

Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and Sports Illustrated, and

targeted at specific geographic markets — are a departure from the

faith's long-running "Homefront" series.

The new print ad campaign features people who identify themselves and

their quest to find God, describing a life challenge that sent them

looking for meaning in the divine. "I felt so destroyed by my addiction

to alcohol and drugs," writes Jovanny Vasquez, of Bronx, N.Y., in a

two-page ad that appeared in U.S. News in the Las Vegas area in August.

Appearing alongside the image of a man dancing with a woman and two

children, he continues, "I prayed with all my heart to find a solution

to my life. I was at the point of losing my wife and family. The God I

was looking for was a merciful God. I wanted to know how to be

forgiven."