Religious content has long been a mainstay of social media, where Christian influencers can garner millions of views. And much of the online reaction to Hallow’s TikTok ads has been positive. Always, Alex JonesHallow’s chief executive, said he was aware that some people were surprised to come across the company’s adverts on social media.
“We are not setting any sophisticated or specific targets,” wrote Mr. Jones, not to be confused with the conspiracy theorist of the same name who ran the Infowars website. “Each platform has its own algorithm to determine its flow. We know there are comments from people who are surprised to see these posts in their News Feed. “We certainly don’t want to impose anything on anyone. »
Jessi Hood, a circulation coordinator at a library in Roanoke, Virginia, who does not consider herself religious, is another person who came across Mr. Wahlberg and Hallow on his For You page on TikTok. “I roll my eyes half the time when I see him,” said Ms. Hood, 24, pointing out the actor’s criminal past. (On the 16th, Mr. Wahlberg was convicted of assaulting a Vietnamese man and served 45 days in prison.)
Mrs. Hood downloaded Hallow out of curiosity. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ It’s an app for prayers, and you have to pay for it? she says. She posted a few screenshots of Hallow on X, then deleted them from her phone.
In his email, Mr. Jones, the Hallow executive, provided anonymous quotes from purported Hallow users who were complimentary of the platform. For others who find Hallow ads on social media, there’s less of interest: “I opened TikTok to a video of Mark Wahlberg asking me to pray with him… and I can’t think of a thing that I want to do less, actually,” Brandi Howard, 32, Posted on.
But given that Mr. Schneider visited the Hallow site and Ms. Hood downloaded the app (only to delete it), the TikTok campaign appears to pique curiosity.
