ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702190004
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BRIGGS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Super Bowl advertisers, paying a record $40,000 per second for commercial time, gave viewers glimpses of dancing grizzly bears, a transsexual attending a class reunion and supermodel Cindy Crawford.
What the tens of millions of people who stayed tuned for commercials on Super Sunday - so named for football rather than the sabbath for most Americans - didn't see was much allusion to religion.
Religion does not move products, apparently.
In a study of 797 TV commercials, only 16 had any religious or spiritual content.
The study by researchers Brendan Maguire of Western Illinois University in Macomb and Georgie Ann Weatherby of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., was presented at a recent meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. It examined commercials from the four broadcast networks and four cable networks ranging from MTV to CNN early last year.
They taped five hours of commercials from each network, spread out over different times during a 24-hour period.
Less than 2 percent of the commercials had any religious or spiritual content. There were only eight commercials with religious content shown a total of 16 times.
At no time was the Bible prominent in a commercial, such as the well-known ad in which a monk who had painstakingly illustrated a set of Scriptures used a photocopier to keep up with demand.
However, conventional religious symbols were found in some commercials. A Buick commercial depicted a family driving up to a church and a Coke spot showed a choir singing outside a church.
There were some irreverent commercials, such as the devil winning a debate with an angel in a Wendy's ad, and a Danka Office Supply commercial showing a company representative climbing a mountain for spiritual advice from a holy man.
But the study's most significant finding was how infrequently religion appeared in commercials.
``I guess I was a bit surprised, given all the attention to traditional values,'' Maguire said in an interview.
The findings do not necessarily mean that religion is becoming less important in society, the researchers point out.
They said advertisers might be reluctant to highlight religious content because it is less dramatic than high-energy activities such as surfing, skiing and jogging, and less flashy than a sexy model on a beach. They also might avoid religion to avoid offending potential consumers.
Not surprised by the results was Thomas Johnson, an analyst at the Media Research Center in Alexandria, Va.
In a 1995 study of prime-time TV shows, center researchers found fewer than one depiction of religion for every six hours of programming.
There is little reason to believe commercials would be more sensitive to religion, he said.
``Advertising really exists in the material world, and religion is of the spiritual world, and there is not a great deal of overlap,'' Johnson said.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB