Non secular content material has lengthy been a mainstay on social media, the place Christian influencers can garner hundreds of thousands of views. And far of the web response to Hallow’s TikTok advertisements has been optimistic. Nonetheless, Alex Jones, the chief govt of Hallow, mentioned he was conscious that some individuals had been shocked to come across the corporate’s advertisements on social media.
“We don’t set any subtle or particular focusing on,” wrote Mr. Jones, who’s to not be confused with the conspiracy theorist of the identical identify who ran the Infowars web site. “Every platform has its personal algorithm for figuring out its feed. We all know that there are some feedback from people who’re shocked to see these posts of their feed. We definitely don’t wish to drive something on anybody.”
Jessi Hood, a library circulation coordinator in Roanoke, Va., who doesn’t take into account herself spiritual, was one other one who came across Mr. Wahlberg and Hallow on her For You web page on TikTok. “I type of roll my eyes half the time after I see him,” Ms. Hood, 24, mentioned, noting the actor’s felony previous. (At 16, Mr. Wahlberg was convicted of assaulting a Vietnamese man and served 45 days in jail.)
Ms. Hood downloaded Hallow out of curiosity. “My first thought was similar to, Oh, that’s bizarre. That is an app that’s for prayers, and it’s important to pay for it?” she mentioned. She posted a number of screenshots from Hallow on X after which deleted it from her cellphone.
In his electronic mail, Mr. Jones, the Hallow govt, offered nameless quotations from purported Hallow customers glowing concerning the platform. For others who discover Hallow advertisements on social media, there’s much less curiosity: “Opened tiktok to a video of Mark Wahlberg asking me to hope with him … and I can not consider a factor I wish to do much less, truly,” Brandi Howard, 32, posted on X.
However on condition that Mr. Schneider visited the Hallow web site and that Ms. Hood downloaded the app (solely to delete it), the TikTok marketing campaign appears to be piquing curiosity.
