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. Still, Alex JonesHallow's chief executive, said he was aware that some people were surprised to come across the company's ads on social media.
“We did not set any sophisticated or specific targets,” wrote 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 feed. We know there are some comments from people who are surprised to see these posts in their 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, was another person who encountered Mr. Wahlberg and Hallow on their For You page on TikTok. “I roll my eyes half the time when I see it.” Ms. Hood, 24, said, highlighting the actor's criminal past. (At age 16, 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. This is a prayer app and you have to pay for it? she said. She posted some screenshots of Hallow on X and then deleted them from her phone.
In his email, Jones, the Hallow executive, provided anonymous quotes from supposed Hallow users excited about the platform. For others who encounter Hallow ads on social media, there is less interest: “I opened up Tiktok and found a video of Mark Wahlberg asking me to pray with him… and I can't think of anything I want to do less of, actually,” Brandi Howard. 32, published in X.
But given that Schneider visited Hallow's website and that Hood downloaded the app (only to delete it), TikTok's campaign appears to be raising curiosity.
