LAT ad critic raves ‘boffo’ about Scientology’s new TV ads that are part of PR pushback
July 28, 2009 at 9:40 am by Wayne GarciaAs the LA Times points out, the Church of Scientology, which has its international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, has taken some public relations hits in the past 12 months, not the least of which was a three-part series in the St. Petersburg Times that detailed the accusations made against the church’s leader, David Miscavige, made by former high-ranking church officials.
Now, it has debuted a new series of 1-minute ads to push back against the bad PR, the LA Times writes:
The Church of Scientology has had a bad couple of years, PR-wise. You could start the damage-control clock running in January 2008 with the release of the Scientology indoctrination video featuring Tom Cruise — you know, black turtleneck, eyes spinning — claiming that Scientologists are the only ones who could really help at an accident scene. This summer the church was tried for fraud in France. In May, Wikipedia said it would ban entries originating from Scientology IP addresses on account of the church’s self-serving wiki-revisionism. And last month the St. Petersburg Times published a devastating four-part expose of Scientology’s tiny tyrant David Miscavige, based on testimony from four former high-ranking executives in the church.
Then there was last week’s Katie Holmes “homage” to Judy Garland on “Dancing With the Stars.” Talk about the scene of an accident.
All of which has left the church with a smoldering crater where its public image ought to be. And yet, the church didn’t get to be La-La Land’s Holy See for nothing. In May the church launched a series of new commercials, and they are nothing short of brilliant. Sleek, chill and nonthreatening, these ads are visually beautiful, with a kind of tonal waveform of celestial bliss that invites fellow questers on a journey of self-discovery. “Scientology: Know yourself. Know life,” the tag line runs. Well, who wouldn’t want a piece of that?
One of the ads is embedded above. Here’s another:
The LAT writes: “In a stroke, Scientology positions itself as Mac in the Mac-versus-PC rivalry. These are virtuoso pieces, tremendously appealing and remarkably shrewd.” Your thoughts?
