Advertising Age looks at ”American’s increasingly fickle relationship with religion”, as churches “scramble” for  consumers’ attention.

With more labeling themselves as having no religion or unaffiliated, the publication looks at recruitment efforts:

Look at the parallels between religion and marketing, and it’s almost identical. People become attached to a religion in the same way someone takes on a brand,” said Mara Einstein, author of “Brands of Faith,” and associate professor of media studies at Queens College. She and others contend that it is marketing, and our consumerist society, that has given people the idea they have a divine right to choose whatever they like — and to treat faiths just like they’d treat any other brands, switching religions or choosing to have none. “We’re so used to having our products created for us that fill our needs … that it makes all of the sense in the world we’d expect the same from our faith,” Ms. Einstein said.

Marketing alone isn’t to blame for religions’ faltering — an influx of new religion choices via immigration, the rise of the megachurch and widespread criticism of organized religion all play a role — but marketing is increasingly the tool of choice for religions seeking to reverse the trend. The United Methodist Church launched a $20 million campaign last week to specifically reach 18- to 34-year-olds with a “Rethink Church” message.