This isn't just about a neck tie with little Angel Moroni figures on it, or an R-rated movie with all the naughty bits erased. We're talking about the tendency among Latter-day Saints to sniff out a catchy trend in the mainstream and then adjust some minor aspect of it to include a token reference to something recognizable to Mormons, then selling it as an entirely new product.
The most egregious example here might originate with the wildly successful board game Settlers of Catan. This pastime features a very uniquely-shaped board with detailed elements of role-playing strategy involved. Some enterprising individual took this concept, changed the name "Catan" to "Zarahemla" (a location in the Book of Mormon), and now succesfully markets it as a seperate game.
Mormons have become the Japan of the pop culture world. Just about anything that enters American consciousness will quickly find itself tweaked, rebranded, and sold at a 15% mark up at Deseret Book.
Everybody putting decals on their car windows showing off where they're from? Well, we'll show them: our mini vans will sport doppleganger decals with creepy "RULDS2?" logos! "Livestrong" rubber bracelets making it big? Rest assured: vaguely Mormon knock-offs followed by the truckload. Harry Potter got you envious for a parallel series with LDS tones? Don't worry, it's been done.
At least this fad won't get desperate and start producing stuff like a Mormon-themed Where's Waldo? Oh, wait...
Coming soon to a church book store near you...iBoM, Hannah Utah, and Church Basketball for Wii Sports (license pending).
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