Canadian church
uses same-sex marriage to bring in new members

The United Church of Canada is developing a marketing campaign that will cast same-sex marriage and other controversial topics in a humorous light to destroy traditional church stereotypes. The campaign, which will include a series of ads in magazines and newspapers, is meant to draw in new members to the church since membership nationally has declined to about 573,000 members, reports Brand Republic. "We wanted people to recognize [that United Church members] do have humor; they can laugh at themselves. People can ask them questions about moral, spiritual issues, whatever is on their mind." said Malcolm Roberts, who developed the ad campaign for United Church. Among the ads, one depicts two male groom figurines on top of a wedding cake with text that reads "Does anyone object?" Another ad is of a squirrel asking controversial questions such as "Does God hate me if I'm gay?" or "Does this croissant look like the Virgin Mary?" For more information on the campaign, visit WonderCafe.ca (The Advocate)