The L.A. Times reports on the newest batch of glossy, slick commercials for the Scientology corporation. The business section of the paper looks at the business angle of Scientology.
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?
The pleasure of these ads derives from their glossy cinematic execution, of course — the cerulean monotones, the exquisite jib camera work, the husky, hunky voice-over, the tranquil soundtrack (think U2 jamming with Vangelis).
But it also must be noted that, finally and surprisingly, the church with the greatest affinity for and proximity to Hollywood has finally turned up a decent branding spot. I mean, these are the people of the exploding volcano.
If these spots were produced in-house, somebody’s thetan deserves a case of beer or something.
From allmuppetcaligula comes the latest chapter in this thrilling saga. In case you’ve forgotten, in Part One, Katie decided she has had it with Hubbard tech and uses Wog ways to train Suri. Tom does not take this news well. He’s about to snap when a noise from outside alerts him to an intrepid reporter.
Really. I’ve always been a fan. And this is one of those moments when he does something right. An Anon asks Tom to sign his V mask and Tom’s security grabs the mask. Cruise gets it from security and signs it, adding a peace sign. No drama. No spectacle. Well done.
It reminds me of when those TV pranksters squirted him with water from a fake microphone. He handled that well, asking them why would they do such a stupid thing. I wish we all could react as well under these circumstances.
Over at Why We Protest, Marc Headley describes how and why he was brought out to work at Gold and how he wound up being audited by Mr. Top Gun himself.
When I went up to RTC, I was met by an RTC staff member who led me in to see Marty Rathbun. I sat down in front of his desk. He started off by saying that I was one of only two people on the entire base that was qualified to get this auditing! He told me that I was not allowed to tell anybody about my auditing. I was not to tell my co-workers, I was not to tell my family members, nobody. I would be going in session every day and under no circumstances was I to be un-sessionable on any given day. I would be doing this for weeks and I would have to do whatever was needed so that I could go in session at the same time each day. He told me that all of my seniors were briefed that I would be on “study” on a special program and that RTC would be directly overseeing my progress.
This was a lot to swallow in one go. I was a bit shocked by all this, but never the less, I was game. Oh yeah, one other thing, my auditor was going to be Tom Cruise.
The penny dropped. Staff had been working day and night for weeks to get the houses ready where Tom Cruise was going to be staying. He was supposedly coming to stay at the base for several weeks or months and was bringing Nicole Kidman with him. It was all starting to make sense now. Tom Cruise was coming to do his Academy Levels. He was going to do his auditor training and he needed someone to audit and this person had to be very low on the Bridge.
The next day I started going in session with Tom Cruise as my auditor and this went on until he was done with his introductory auditor training.
There’s plenty of fascinating details and it’s one more great reason we should be glad Marc has Blown For Good.
John Duignan’s new book is an insider’s look at Scientology from a former high ranking member. He’s garnering a lot of attention, much of it kicked up, of course, by the legal threats from Scientology who are having it barred from sale in the UK just as they did with the Tom Cruise bio from Andrew Morton early in the year.
On Oct. 31, Irish publisher Merlin released “The Complex,” in which John Duignan, identified as “a former high-ranking member” of the church in Britain, describes his “dramatic escape” from its “elite para-military group,” the Sea Organization. Five days later, Cruise dropped by Amazon’s Seattle headquarters to glad-hand staffers and host a sneak peek at his new movie, “Valkyrie.”
A few days later, Amazon’s British Web site stopped selling “The Complex,” explaining to customers that someone mentioned in the book had alleged it defamed him with “false claims.”
“U.K. law gives us no choice but to remove the title from our catalogue,” Amazon said in a statement.
“I believe Tom Cruise influenced them,” Duignan tells us.
I look forward to reading this book which would make a perfect stocking-stuffer, especially for someone barred from buying it in the UK — or Tom Cruise. It is available from an Irish bookseller who will ship internationally.
This is a really interesting reworking of the Tom Cruise leaked Scientology tape. They took Tom Cruise’s words and put them in the bleak futuristic universe of the popular video game Half-Life 2. A viewer sent me this description of the game.
After a failed teleportation experiment a a portal to a evil intergalactic empire (called Combine) is opened. There was a 3 hour war in which the earth lost. The administrator of a science facility agreed to be a sort of Combine’s pawn on earth. The Combine has killed or taken away all children and made a suppression field so that humankind can’t reproduce.
Words that were once simply insane now take on a very frightening resonance.
I’m back! Check out the details here. Thanks for all your support!
ORIGINAL POST:
Here’s what I’ve learned so far. My first account was canceled in early Feb. when the Tom Cruise tape was zipping around the world. Scientology found it on a private YouTube account and I got a takedown notice for it about at the same time I got a takedown notice from Viacom for a Stephen Colbert clip in which he goofed on Scientology. Before I could act on the takedown notices and remove the offending clips, the accounts were canceled.
I lost the xenutv account and all my uploaded clips about Scientology. I started over on xenutv1 and uploaded only my own self produced clips, making sure to not have any copyrighted material on the account.
About a week later, the Anonymous movement started in response to YouTube’s removal of the Tom Cruise tape. I started getting contacted by people asking me about this so I made a video about Anonymous urging them to not break the law and to instead use legal and peaceful means to protest Scientology. I thought they would ignore or attack me but instead they heard my message and understood what I was saying.
My first channel had about 3000 subscribers when it was yanked. In about two months, the new channel had reached 10,000 subscribers thanks to Anonymous. Many of my videos received high honors on YouTube and a lot of media attention was drawn to them and to me. The media wanted to know about Anonymous and I became the wise bearded face the media could go to get some answers about the group.
While my website xenutv.com has been very successful over the past years, YouTube brought in a new set of viewers and a new way to interact with those viewers. It was very exciting to be a part of it.
Last weekend I released the tease for my interview with Jason Beghe. That became my most successful clip yet, reaching over 595,000 views before my channel was canceled on Thursday afternoon.
My friend Tory Christman let me put a video on her channel about the takedown. At that point I hadn’t heard anything from YouTube as to why it had happened. Just two days prior, Tory’s account has been suspended and she hadn’t been told why. People complained to YouTube and her account was put back up. But not before someone bragged on alt.religion.scientology that they had gotten Tory’s channel removed and they were coming after mine next.
Then mine was gone. The obvious assumption is that Scientology was behind it.
People complained to YouTube about my account. YouTube got so much pressure that they called me to explain the situation. They told me because my first account was canceled I am not supposed to have had a second account. When it was brought to their attention that I had the second account, they took it down. They say the timing was a coincindence.
YouTube refused to tell me who complained about my second account. They said it wasn’t Scientology but they wouldn’t say who it was which I find odd. They told me who complained about my first account but not the second account.
They told me if Viacom would retract two DMCA complaints at my first account, they would happily reinstate both my YouTube channels.
“Scientology: Wag of the Finger” (Colbert clip on Scientology) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnYtsQ5yaEg Submitted February 2, 2007, BayTSP notice ID: 158-8236
I never saw the January 15th notice which has no notice ID.
In asking Viacom to retract the complaints, I’m not asking to keep the clips on YouTube. I simply never had the chance to taken them down before the account was canceled. Since then Viacom has come up with a great solution for bloggers. We can now embed these same clips on our sites and Viacom can sell an ad when people watch them. I have no problem with that at all. It gives me the content and Viacom the profit they deserve.
I don’t blame either YouTube or Viacom for this. Both are within their rights. But I’m asking Viacom to retract the complaints because I think my channel is worth keeping on YouTube. In the past few months, it has been an important factor in this whole ongoing story of Anonymous. It’s a story widely reported around the world. YouTube is in the very DNA of the story and my channel was a part of that. I can post my videos on any number of other sites and they will continue to be seen. People will find them, I know.
But I’d miss YouTube and I’d like to think that maybe in a small way they might miss me too.
UPDATE: Sunday Noon
Lots of people are offering me their accounts and suggesting I post the videos elsewhere. I appreciate all the suggestions and the time you are taking to contact people on my behalf.
Yes, there are plenty of other video sites out there and I have many other accounts. Yes, the videos are being uploaded now to other sites and yes, you are welcome to spread them virally and get them everywhere. I will tell you where the videos are on Monday. A couple media outlets will have them as well.
I would still love to have my YouTube account back. Viacom and YouTube are not in the wrong. I understand they don;t want to set precedent with their actions but I don’t think they would be.
Had I had the chance to remove the offending Stephen Colbert clips, I would have. Before I could react to the takedown notice, the account had been canceled. I am not asking Viacom to allow me to keep the Colbert clips on YouTube while making everyone else take them off their accounts. I’m asking Viacom to essentially give me the time to remove the offending clips and comply with the DMCA notice.
YouTube says it was a repeat offense that caused the takedown but I only got one takedown notice from Viacom. The other may have gotten lost in transit. YouTube could give me no notice ID on the January 15th DMCA request.
If I had a chance to respond and remove the clip, they would have not have had to delete the first account. I’m asking for a chance to comply. They don’t have to give me the chance and it wouldn’t make them an evil company. I’m hoping we can work this out and still fall within their policies.
I can go elsewhere. But I think there is some greater good if I were to be given the chance to remain a part of their service.
After reviewing the Comedy Central clips it has been determined that the postings on your YouTube channel were clearing infringing. Retractions will not be issued for the notices sent.
THE WOG BLOG from XENU TV 