Abstract
This study examines the efficacy of outdoor religious messages. In other words, does exposure to roadside advertisements displaying religious messages, particular church services or prayer, increase one‘s intent to attend church services or to engage in active prayer? Three hundred thirty-five undergraduate and graduate students from a medium-sized southern university (in the United States) took part in the study‘s experiment (Seventeen students did not complete the experiment so their responses were eliminated). One hundred sixty-five students were placed in a control group. The remaining 153 students were placed in a treatment group. All participants answered the same pretest and posttest questionnaires on a computer screen. In addition, they observed a variety of outdoor advertisements (on the computer screen) after the pretest questionnaire and before the posttest questionnaire. The control group was exposed to 14 non-religious messages while the treatment group was exposed to 14 religious and non-religious messages. The results showed a ceiling effect on its participants. Essentially, most were religious to begin with which left little room for them to increase their religious habits. As the study showed, most participants did not change their responses from pretest to posttest after exposure to the outdoor ads.
Highlights
This study examines the efficacy of outdoor religious messages
A total of 335 undergraduate and graduate students from a medium-sized southern university participated in the study
While the results indicated a significant difference between the control group‘s pretest and posttest, they showed less of intent to attend church services
Summary
This study examines the efficacy of outdoor religious messages. In other words, does exposure to roadside advertisements displaying religious messages, particular church services or prayer, increase one‘s intent to attend church services or to engage in active prayer? Three hundred thirty-five undergraduate and graduate students from a medium-sized southern university (in the United States) took part in the study‘s experiment (Seventeen students did not complete the experiment so their responses were eliminated). Attend Church on Sunday;‖ a painted sign off Interstate 65 near Prattville, Alabama, reads, ―Go to Church or the Devil Will Get You;‖ another roadside poster panel near Norwood, Georgia, reads, ―Need God.com;‖ and, the list goes on. Quoting the Reverend Al Perkins, a Montgomery, Alabama, Episcopal priest, Griffin notes, ―It‘s [a church marquee message] a form of advertising, and a form ofinvitation. It says that we‘ve got a sense of humor, come see us‖ In 2009, the 18 billboards were removed and were replaced with nine new messages, including ones that read, ―The real Supreme Court meets up here—God,‖ ―One nation under me—God,‖ and ―All I know...is everything—God‖ (GodSpeaks.com). Veenker (1999) notes, ―[The] billboard campaign [was designed] to reach people who had stopped attending church‖ (p. 10)
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