Rick Moore, professor in the Department of Media, presented a paper at Oxford University in March 2025. The paper, “Peddling Piety: On the Ethics of Using Religious Imagery in Advertising,” was shared at the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies.
Moore’s paper analyzed ethical questions related to the use of religious imagery in secular advertising. Recent research in this area has tended to focus on perceived shortcomings in representation. For example, questions have been raised about the balance between majority and minority faiths when they are presented in ads.
In addition, much research has investigated the possibility of audience offense, especially when commercial messages use religious imagery in ways that could be seen as irreverent or sacrilegious.
Moore’s paper reviewed those studies but presented an alternative view for consideration, asking whether accurate and positive representation of religion are the only possibilities for concern. Borrowing ideas from a school of study called “Media Ecology,” Moore raised questions as to whether a proliferation of religious imagery in an internet-based environment might actually disserve specific religions by detaching their imagery from the historical sources and narratives in which they are embedded. He suggested that this area of questioning should not only be important to scholars, as they continue to investigate a notable decline in religious literacy among the Western public, but also to media practitioners, if they wish to consider the potential broader impact of their creative decision-making.