Something to watch out for

Scientology's "Flirty Fishing" Experiment in Advertising
Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 05:22:20 AM PDT


From approximately 1974 to 1987, females in the Children of God cult -- which is now known as "The Family" -- used a tactic called "flirty fishing"
to induce males to join their sect. They, in effect, offered their
bodies for sex to non-members to get them to join. Scientologists
apparently took notice and with their new advertising campaign are
using attractive females to be the "lustmodels" for their social
networking cult. They're not explicitly offering sex, or even
mentioning sex, but they certainly seem to be using a type of Joe Camel strategy to get their sexy message across. I'll make my case below the fold.


Exhibit "A" is a video which appears to contain every possible
metaphor for love-making, including a man entering a cave, a rose
unfolding, the slow lick of a lollipop. The Scientologists also
specifically decided to use the word "flirting" while a young Asian
girl was -- you guessed it -- flirting with the camera. That shot is
at :43 of the video. But the climax of the video is at the :59 mark
with an extreme closeup of a very comely young woman and this voice
over: "... it's yours."





Now, one time is a coincidence, but two times in a row is a
marketing strategy. In the second video, at :41, the cult again ended
the commercial with an extreme closeup of a very attractive and young
female with this voiceover: "You will rise again." Here is Exhibit "B."





There's more. The last video in the current Scientology marketing
campaign is marked and introduced into evidence as Exhibit "C." Near
the end of it, at the :36 second mark, the camera is pointing down onto
the bed of a beautiful young girl at night, with this voiceover: "That aching desire, that unexplainable emptiness that can only be filled by one thing ...." Of course, the video ends with another closeup of a good-looking female teenager.





Besides the unbelievable coincidence of ending the three commercials
with obvious double entendres and young females, there is the fact that
the sexualized language only appears when a comely young woman is the
object of a close-up shot. The commercials also depicted mountains,
mansions, basketball, cars, paper clips, boys, grandmothers, caves,
men, money, bookshelves, houses, etc., but the "flirting" language
always appears on cue when a desireable young woman is on screen.


Scientology has spent millions of dollars to produce and market
these commercials on national television. They knew exactly what they
were doing. Is it appropriate for Scientology to use sexuality and
teenage girls (or at least teenage-looking girls) to market their
religion? McDonald's, the Methodist Church and Ford have never
introduced an ad campaign that included a long overhead pan of a young
girl in bed at night, with a voiceover saying: "That aching desire, that unexplainable emptiness that can only be filled by one thing ...."



In the end, there is nothing that can be done about the cult's
exercise of free speech other than to understand it and make sure
others are aware of the sneaky "Joe Camel-like" strategies being used.
Also, you can register your disgust if you are so inclined. Finally,
as they are a very litigious band of mind gypsies, I will provide the
appropriate disclaimer: These are my opinions only.