On the first day of 2012, a woman named Debbie Cook who had been a somewhat legendary official in the Church of Scientology rocked the church with a lengthy e-mail that went out to thousands of her fellow church members.
One of the accusations she made in that e-mail (which the church sued her over) was that Scientology’s leader David Miscavige was sitting on more than a billion dollars in cash that had been raised by the International Association of Scientologists — money that was supposed to be used for promoting the church. Specifically, Cook complained that you never saw the kind of high-profile advertising that Scientology had been known for decades earlier.
Readers of this blog know that Cook’s e-mail had many repercussions, and it is still leading some longtime members to question their faith in the church. But one of the most interesting reactions to it seemed to be a much more concerted effort by Miscavige to spend money on advertising.
Scientology spending on ads reached huge proportions later that year, and continues today. Web advertising is ubiquitous, but Scientology also began spending big money on network TV ads, which eventually resulted in the biggest splash ever — an ad during last year’s Super Bowl.
Before the game arrived, we found messages to Scientologists telling them that the ad was coming. But when we checked websites that track Super Bowl ad buying, we couldn’t see Scientology listed. (The same is true this year.)
What Scientology did was rather clever — rather than spend millions for a national spot, they bought local time during the game in several big markets around the country. An expert told us Scientology probably paid less than a million dollars for that stunt, even if the Daily Mail and others kept repeating the notion that they had spent between $4 and $8 million for a 60-second spot. (It was actually only a 30-second version.)
Now, they’re at it again. At Scientology’s IAS Gala in November, Miscavige revealed their slick new ad, “Spiritual Technology.” We posted video of that gala on January 7th, and within a few days, the ad showed up during a playoff football game. We also heard about it showing up at other times during prime time.
Now, we’ve been sent this flier by one of our tipsters, which indicates that the ad will continue to be shown at prominent times, and will appear during the Super Bowl on February 2…
Last year, the ad showed up right at the end of the first half and before the halftime show began. According to the flier, the church is buying time before and after the game this time. We’ll be watching for Twitter reactions when that happens — they’re always priceless.
Note: When this flier talks about a “grant” being made, that’s Scientology-speak for “some cash was taken out of the IAS slush fund.”
Moving on to our next item — hey, look at this, someone is auctioning off the Scientology crap that Isaac Hayes owned! OK, this is sad.
Continuing on with our Sunday Funnies, we always marvel at the new ways that Scientology comes up with to pry cash out of people who have been pressed again and again for donations. This idea from Sydney is pretty weird…
The really interesting information in that flier is that the Sydney Ideal opening is so close. Will some of our Down Under readers be in place to feed us updates?
We’re at Ron’s home, solo auditing, and our ruins are gone!
As you read this description of the “Cause Resurgence Rundown,” keep in mind that it’s just running around a pole for hours at a time…
Hey, look what’s happening uptown!
Is this ad suggesting that Yari signed her billion-year contract and joined the Sea Org at 12?
Thirteen years? Something tells us that Bindy also joined the Sea Org very young. Anyone know her current age?
This next flier reminds us that a couple of years ago, every flier from San Diego was an assault on the eyes. It looks like they finally have someone who can actually put together a decent looking mailer working there now!
We’re going to finish up with this massively long flier about the upcoming World Cup in Brazil. It’s a wonderful mess…
Thanks again to our great tipsters. Keep those mailers and fliers coming!
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on January 19, 2014 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
