Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
Scientologists open TV ad' blitz
Press Association News, 17 September 1996
By Simon Holden, Media Correspondent, PA News The Church of Scientology was tonight condemned as "dangerous system" after unveiling its first British TV commercial. It has chosen this country to launch what will become a European-wide campaign after the Independent Television Commission lifted its advertising ban on the organisation in April. The commercial will go out three to five times a day, seven days a week, for a month. The 60-second advert will be shown on UK Gold and UK Living tomorrow. Viewers will be told: "On the day when we can fully trust each other there will be peace on earth." It features a contact number for the church's British HQ in East Grinstead, West Sussex. The church aims to get its first advertising slot on mainstream British TV in three months' time. Scientologists have been criticised for allegedly using "high pressure" sales tactics to gain new members. They have also been accused of dividing families and charging substantial fees for courses. But Church of Scientology President Reverend Heber Jentzsch, 60, said: "Scientology is not a dogma. People can make up their own minds. This is a 60-second commercial - if you are brainwashed in 60 seconds, then wash your brain. "The message is that it is possible to be happy in this world. And we hope to be successful in spreading that." However, an anonymous former member, who spent 5,000 on Scientology courses, told PA News tonight: "It makes me really sad to hear this organisation is now free to advertise and act as if it is respectable. "It is a very dangerous system. If you go in naively you are going to be in for a nasty shock and so is your family. He added: "I would never go back in a zillion years. The whole situation is a farce because the organisation is acting within the law. "Scientology is dangerous and I can only blame the lawmakers because there is nothing that can be done," claimed the 45-year-old former recruit. He said he joined eight years ago but left after he was allegedly "humiliated" by the church's Rehabilitation Project Force, which was involved with the correction of members who had committed misdemeanours. He said: "If you did something wrong, then a senior member put you on a manual labour programme. "It was demoralising and humiliating. You lose a lot of freedom. I felt like the lowest of the low." Mr Jentzsch, added: "The advert is about helping people understand what Scientology is. We want to build understanding with other religions." He added: "Britain has made a major step forward. Religious freedom is a right. "We arrived in the 20th century and we will be thriving in the next century and long into the future. We have new ideas, and new ideas are not necessarily understood." Meanwhile, Home Office Minister Tom Sackville warned young people and their families not to be taken in by advertising messages from religious cults. He said: "The majority of these organisations, while posing as religious movements, practise the most evil and cynical kind of fraud in order to get control over and enrich themselves at the expense of young people. "They use a variety of techniques to recruit those who may be depressed and lonely, or perhaps temporarily vulnerable during their first weeks at a new university or college." He added: "Once involved, young people find themselves unable to get out: cult organisers then wreak havoc with their minds, often causing appalling distress to families, some of whom suffer effects akin to bereavement. "The fact that neither we nor any other government have found a legal formula to ban the activities or promotion of cults, at least where consenting adults are involved, does not take away from the fact that they are thoroughly undesirable as thousands of families know to their cost." Mr Sackville added: "All approaches from people claiming to represent `new religious movements' should be treated with the utmost suspicion." A spokesman for the London-based Cult Information Centre reacted angrily to the ITC's decision. He said: "I am appalled, the ITC has made a big mistake. I hope commonsense prevails and they change their rules so the decision can be reversed." "We have become very concerned about it over a number of years," he added.
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