Mormons take to the airwaves in Minneapolis, eight other cities

Screenshot of a Fox 9 segment on the ad buy

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — aka the Mormon church — is running a mega ad campaign in nine mid-sized and mostly non-coastal American cities, including Minneapolis  to tell us… they’re normal people!

The ads are airing in Baton Rouge, Colorado Springs, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Tucson and Minneapolis, WCCO reports.

So what’s the deal? The Mormon church denies any political agenda, but Fox News thinks it might at least partially be a ploy to make 2012 presidential hopeful (and Mormon) Mitt Romney more electable among Republican primary voters. Alex Pareene at Salon points out that the ads are running in four or five potential swing states, but he concludes:

There is a history of Americans persecuting Mormons, and they’re a bit touchy about getting run out of everywhere they were until they ended up settling beside a giant dead salt lake, so working on their brand is understandable. But (in addition to incredibly expensive mission work) this could also be damage control for the messy press they got for bankrolling the anti-gay marriage campaign in [California].

Salon has the ads. Here’s Fox 9′s take on the videos: