Interesting study about whether sex and violence actually do help sell products. Apparently combining either sex or violence with product placement makes your ad less effective. Despite what Madison Avenue thinks. Will this lead to significant changes in the way ads are done? Perhaps. Although we’ll see. Inertia is a hard thing to kill.

According to the Deseret News:

MHA Best Book Award ($2000): Richard Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling

Smith-Pettit Best First Book Award ($1200): Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister, Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet

Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary/Bibliography ($1000): Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845: A Documentary History and The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846: A Documentary History

Turner-Bergera Award for Best Biography ($1000): Greg Prince and William Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

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Today, FARMS announced on its website that it would make two responses to The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon, a 66-minute documentary film produced by ”Living Hope Ministries,” available online in advance of their publication in the FARMS Review of Books. (more…)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rebuted CNN editorialist Lou Dobbs’ comments linking the Church to illegal immigration on his show yesterday, 5/24/06. According to The Deseret News, as well as published transcripts of Dobbs’ program, and Anderson Cooper 360 Mr. Dobbs’ claimed: (more…)

Just over a month ago, I noted that USU’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, which describes itself as ‘a humanities outreach center in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences,’” had announced the 2005 winners of its Evans Biography Award and Handcart Award.  The Evans Biography Award went to Richard Bushman’s biography of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, and the Handcart Award went to Gregory Prince and Wm. Robert Wright’s biography of David O. McKay, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism.

This Friday evening, the Mormon History Association will be announcing its 2006 award winners at its annual meeting in Casper, Wyoming, including the MHA Best Book Award, the Smith-Pettit Best First Book Award, the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary/Bibliography, the Ella Larsen Turner-Ella Ruth Turner Bergera Award for Best Biography, the J. Talmage Jones Awards of Excellence (”[a]warded for the two outstanding published articles on Mormon history”), and the T. Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year. (more…)