Dianetics TV advert banned!

Scientology & Advertising - FAIR News, Spring 1995

A complaint has been made to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) about an advertisement for Dianetics on satellite TV. The ITC, in a letter to the complainant, stated that the advertisement for Dianetics was placed by the publisher, New Era Publications. On an earlier complaint by the Conservative Family Campaign, reported on in January 1994, about the Church of Scientology, the ITC concluded that access to the organisation's activities was insufficiently direct to qualify it as a religious advertiser. The ITC also concluded that irrespective of whether the organisation was an acceptable advertiser, the content of the advertisement breached the advertising code. The complaint was upheld. Scientology is seeking a Judicial Review of the ban. The ITC has concluded that New Era and the Church are associated organisations and the ITC rules make clear that where an organisation is not an acceptable advertiser, advertising on that organisation's behalf is not acceptable either. Marketing Week carried an item by Nick Higham on 24 March 1995. "Tough time for ad-land police." He said that Scientology has made a statement to the effect that ITC is leading audiences down the path to lower moral standards in a world full of spiralling crime, illiteracy, violence and pornography. [Are Scientologists the people to lead us *out* of low moral standards? I don't think so - MLP] The approval of advertisements for Lo-Cal chocolate bars and the Naomi Campbell/Vauxhall cars illustrate their claims. [Aw, come on; There's *no* comparison with Scientology. Chocolate bars don't lock you in a dark basement and shout at you. Vauxhall cars don't cost $380,000.-MLP] To fill readers in on the background to this controversy, a quick look in the May 1993 ITC Code of Advertising Standards and Practice is useful. Appendix 5 - Religious Advertising - which sets out, amongst other things, the following clauses:

Unacceptable Advertisers 5 No advertising is acceptable from bodies: (ii) whose rites or other forms of collective observance are not normally directly accessible to the general public.

Counselling 12 Without prior agreement of the Commission, no advertisement may offer to provide spiritual, moral or emotional counselling.

Identification 18 All advertisements must clearly identify the advertiser or the religious organisation on whose behalf the advertisement is being broadcast.

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See, all it takes is one complaint to the right people! -- MARTIN L: Postgrad. studying "Probability and Belief" at Bristol University POULTER : KNIGHT NATASEVOLLLEWYLLOJI WWW Home Page & Scientology Critics' OF Scientology is a dangerous cult stuff: <a href="http://mail.bris.ac.uk/~plmlp">http://mail.bris.ac.uk/~plmlp</a> XENU -warn your family and friends.