A modestly dressed young female student walks slowly, in front of Joyce Center.. at the University of Notre Dame…

A female voice narrates:

“During my campus visit to Notre Dame, I began to earnestly pray about which college to attend: BYU or Notre Dame? — I had been accepted to both. suddenly, in a pillar of light, an angel appeared, and the angel spake unto me, saying: ‘Behold the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, and the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots…Those who attend here know not the name once written in their hearts; they have cast it out, as they would their neighbor’s ass…’

cut to her standing in front of the Marriot center holding a 9 month old child, speaking to the camera:

I am now at BYU, completing my degree in Home Economics. My husband and I live in a trailer park in Spanish Fork. Once he finishes his degree in Ancient Scripture Studies, he’s going to work for Private Fuel Storage in Tooele. The Lord, indeed, has blessed us…

Brother Packer’s voice intones:

BYU. Choose The Right.

…. Fade out to sunset over Kennecott Copper… Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing “I’m a Child of God” in the background…

Pro-BYU? What website have you been following?

Lamonte: Dad–sorry to break it to you, but I’m now 30 1/2, not late 20s. Also, BYU may play out of their heads, but did you happen to see the game Saturday? Notre Dame came (more than once) within inches of beating the “best offense in modern college football history”. They now know how good they are, they’re ticked off, and they’re going to take it out on the hapless Cougars. Brandon Hoyte also has a history of harming Mormons.

About the commercial: I was actually surprised at how many students wrote into the ND school newpaper to complain about the ad. Many of the complaints were simply dumb (e.g. “what about the kids that didn’t get in? Doesn’t God answer their prayers too?”), but in general the comments showed that many students cared a lot about the relationship between Notre Dame and Catholicism. They didn’t want it to be just a cute marketing gimmick.

Notre Dame isn’t just part of a “franchise” of similar schools. It’s the best Catholic school in the country and in some sense the most Catholic one. First of all the 85% Catholic among the undergrads I think beats BC and Georgetown easily (but I’m not absolutely sure in the case of BC). But I think it’s also “most Catholic” in the sense that it’s more of a cross section of American Catholicism (it includes the various ways in which American Catholics are Catholic) than the other major schools are. (Though I don’t want to fail to give Russell’s alma mater its due on this point…)

Their response – BYU admissions is completely numerically based. ACT and GPA are the biggest factors in their equation. Living outside of UT and ID does get factored in (but only those 2 states – no Mississippi demarcation). It adds a small number to the equation, but not a lot.

Giving to the alumni association will not help get their son in. And I quote “Not at the Lord’s University.” Also, when factoring in all the different BYU’s (ID, HI, etc.) acceptance is about 80%. That is all I know.

That said, the new president (Fr. John Jenkins) seems to have a more agressive sense of what role religion should play at Notre Dame. So one could read this commercial as a gentle, partly light-hearted way to get out the message that ND really means to provide a higher type of education than is found almost anywhere else.

I think it would serve BYU well to somehow in PR terms bring “higher” and “education” into a single concept, as this commercial does quite well, if only intuitively. The “higher” part of BYU–its religiosity–is being broadcast pretty well, whether people are persuaded that a BYU spirituality is actually higher or not. But how that actually makes a BYU education better–I think that is something people are less clear on.