NEWS BULLETIN FROM THE DIOCESE OF BIRMINGHAM
Date: 25 March 2003

ADVERTISING AUTHORITY UPHOLDS COMPLAINT OVER "UNTRUTHFUL" SCIENTOLOGY CLAIMS

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today upheld a complaint by the Church of England over claims made by the Scientology movement that it had "saved 250,000 people from drug abuse."

The complaint was made by the Diocese of Birmingham following an advertising campaign which was run by Scientology in the summer of 2001 in Birmingham, London and Berkshire.

In their letter to the ASA, the Diocese of Birmingham complained that the poster breached the parts of the advertising code which related to truthfulness, honesty and substantiation. The Church wrote that the claims made by Scientology were "both dishonest and also misleading by both ambiguity and exaggeration."

In upholding the complaint the ASA said they were "concerned that the advertisers had not proved that all those enrolled on the programmes were dependent on drugs at the time of the enrolment or that as many as 250,000 drug users had stopped using those drugs as a direct result of Scientology's intervention."

Welcoming the ASA's ruling, Mr. Arun Arora, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Birmingham said:

"This is a landmark ruling by the ASA.

"Despite the thousands of pounds spent by Scientology in legal fees trying to delay, bury and frustrate this complaint, the truth has come out - and the truth is Scientology makes claims for their dangerous cult which they can neither prove nor substantiate.

"Drug users who are trying to kick their habit are vulnerable, many of them are young people who are trying to change their life. This makes them perfect prey for cults like Scientology. I am delighted that the ASA have gone some way to stopping the activities of this organisation in its tracks and highlighting their misleading selling techniques."

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003 16:04:08 -0000, Hartley Patterson <hpttrsn@daisy.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

>> In upholding the complaint the ASA said they were "concerned that the
>> advertisers had not proved that all those enrolled on the programmes were
>> dependent on drugs at the time of the enrolment

>Curious - why else would anyone enroll with Narconon?

In order to report higher numbers, they rolled purification rundown completions in with the Narconon numbers. Very few of the people undergoing the purification rundown are addicts when they start it, so it's no surprise that they aren't after they finish it. The ASA noted that those distorted numbers were deceptive when advertising the programs efficacy in curing addiction.

The purif leads to an interesting mindset. I had seen a news story with Giovanni Ribisi commenting that without Scientology[tm] he'd be in the gutter due to heroine addiction and then later saw him mention never having had a drug problem. I've seen other Scientologists[tm] who also apparently never had a drug problem make similar comments. The cult has them in fear that outside the door marked exit, crushing failure awaits.

Instilling fear is one of the hooks the cult uses to keep people in. === kEvin me@manual-override.com

Church of Scientology

8 Ethel Street Birmingham West Midlands B2 4BG

Date: 26th March 2003

Media: Poster

Sector: Non-commercial

Public Complaints From: Berkshire, Birmingham, London

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Complaint:

The Church of England Diocese of Birmingham and two members of the public objected to a poster, for the Church of Scientology, headlined "Scientology: applied religious philosophy. 250,000 people salvaged from drugs". Beneath the headline was a freephone telephone number and a website address.

1. The Church of England Diocese of Birmingham and a member of the public challenged the claim "250,000 people salvaged from drugs"

2. Another member of the public challenged whether Scientology could help people give up a damanging drug habit.

Codes Section: 3.1, 7.1 (Ed 10)

Adjudication:

The advertisers explained that the Church of Scientology was a world-wide religious movement with more than 2,000 churches, missions and organisations in over 130 countries. They said the movement was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, who was particularly concerned with developing programmes to relieve drug dependency and deter drug abuse.

The advertisers maintained that the Church offered salvage from drugs through their Drug Purification Rundown and Drug Rundown programmes for treating drug addiction and their preventative and educational programmes about drugs; they asserted that the word "salvaged" meant "the retrieval or preservation from loss or destruction". The advertisers said the claim "250,000 people salvaged from drugs" was based on the number of people who had completed the drug rehabilitation programmes offered by the Church. They asserted that, because Scientology was a drug-free community, people who had undertaken one of the Drug Purification or Drug Rundown programmes had been salvaged from drugs. They said the advertised figure of 250,000 people salvaged from drugs was a conservative estimate of the number of people worldwide who had undertaken one of the drug rehabilitation programmes offered by the Church and had had signed statements to say they had been freed from the effects of drugs.

In support of their claim, the advertisers sent: information about their drug Purification Rundown and Drug Rundown programmes; samples of drug education literature and videos; signed testimonies from participants in their drug education programmes; medical evaluations of their drug rehabilitation programmes; extracts of surveys conducted in 1991 and 2001 that they believed showed that Scientology was a drug-free community and a sample of responses from people who were asked what they understood the message of the poster to be. The advertisers maintained that, although it could be interpreted in different ways, the intended message of the poster was that Scientology could help anyone who had a problem with drugs, as it had helped many thousands of others. They believed the advertisement encouraged people to visit their website or contact the Church for advice and help on drugs, not to join the Church. They explained that the poster had appeared at the same time as a well-publicised exhibition on Scientology in the centre of Birmingham and said they believed that it would be interpreted in that context.

1. Complaint upheld

The Authority noted the advertisers' submission. Although it accepted that more than 250,000 people had undertaken the Church's Drug Purification and Drug Rundown programmes, which were designed to free people from the effects of taking drugs, the Authority understood that, within Scientology, the concept of "drug use" referred to a variety of behaviours that ranged from heavy use of street drugs to occasional ingestion of alcohol or prescription medicines and exposure to chemical toxins. It understood that, because the Church of Scientology described itself as a "drug-free community", members were encouraged to identify their patterns of drug use and free themselves from habits that contravened Scientology's philosophy. Although it acknowledged the terms of Scientology's philosophy on drug use, the Authority considered that, without clarification, readers were likely to interpret the claim "250,000 people salvaged from drugs" to mean that 250,000 people had stopped being dependent on street or prescription drugs because of Scientology. The Authority accepted that the drug Purification Rundown and Drug Rundown programmes the advertisers offered had enabled many people to overcome a dependency on drugs but was nevertheless concerned that the advertisers had not proved that all those enrolled on the programmes were dependent on street or prescription drugs at the time of enrolment or that as many as 250,000 drug users had stopped using those drugs as a direct result of Scientology's intervention. The Authority welcomed the advertisers' assurance that the poster was no longer appearing and advised them to make clear the terms of their definition of drugs in future advertising.

2. Complaint not upheld

The Authority considered that the advertisers' evidence showed that many people with a damaging drug habit had stopped taking drugs with help from Scientology and did not object on those grounds.

From http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/27/nasa27.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/03/27/ixhome.html

Scientologist drug claim on poster is censured
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
(Filed: 27/03/2003)

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against the Church of Scientology, which stated in a poster that it had rescued 250,000 people from drug addiction.

The council said that the worldwide religious movement had not proved its claim that as many as a quarter of a million addicts had stopped using drugs as a direct result of Scientology's intervention.

The Church of England's Birmingham diocese and several members of the public had objected to the poster, which was produced by the Scientologists to publicise a tour of parts of the country.

The poster read: "Scientology: applied religious philosophy. 250,000 people salvaged from drugs." There was also a free telephone number and a website address.

The council said it accepted that many people had stopped taking drugs with the help of Scientology, but the movement had not proved that they had all been addicts.

From: janeebeslis@hotmail.com (Praxis)
Subject: Scientology claims were not proved
Date: 26 Mar 2003 17:05:56 -0800
Message-ID: <3e471c14.0303261705.32c45a58@posting.google.com>

From http://infobrix.yellowbrix.com/pages/infobrix/Story.nsp?story_id=37635282&ID=infobrix&scategory=Business+and+Finance&

Scientology claims were not proved
Source: Birmingham Post (UK)
Publication date: 2003-03-26

The Advertising Standards Authority today upheld a complaint by the Church of England over claims made by the Scientology movement that it had 'saved 250,000 people from drug abuse'.

The complaint was made by the Diocese of Birmingham following an advertising campaign which was run by the Scientology movement in the summer of 2001 in Birmingham, London and Berkshire.

The Diocese of Birmingham complained that the poster breached the parts of the advertising code which related to truthfulness, honesty and substantiation. The letter added that the claims made were 'both dishonest and also misleading by both ambiguity and exaggeration'.

In upholding the complaint, the ASA said they were 'concerned that the advertisers had not proved that all those enrolled on the programmes were dependent on drugs at the time of the enrolment or that as many as 250,000 drug users had stopped using those drugs as a direct result of Scientology's intervention'.

Welcoming the ASA's ruling, Arun Arora, director of communications for the Diocese of Birmingham, said: 'This is a landmark ruling by the ASA.'

From: Rod Keller <rkeller@unix01.voicenet.com>
Subject: Mad.co.uk: ASA Adjudication
Message-ID: <bVDga.18408$gU.796115@news2.voicenet.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 14:29:27 GMT

ASA rejects Church of Scientology's drug claim
mad.co.uk
26 March 2003
By Sarah Dix
http://www.mad.co.uk/story.aspx?uid=a9b84fbf-aaad-4956-9692-8a9a3495a3d8

The Church of Scientology has been rapped by the ASA for an ad, which claimed the church had saved 250,000 people from drugs.

The Church of England, through its Birmingham diocese, and a member of the public objected to claims in the poster ad that its drug "purification" programmes had "salvaged" 250,000 from the ravages of drug abuse.

While the Church of Scientology provided strong evidence in support of its claim including testimonials from participants and medical evaluations of its drug rehabilitation programmes, the ASA was unconvinced.

While acknowledging the religion's views on drug use and its steps to prevent drug abuse among its members, the ASA did not accept that all those enrolled on the church's programmes were existing drug users, or had stopped taking drugs as a direct result of intervention by the church.

However the industry regulator failed to uphold a second complaint objecting to the claim that Scientology could help people kick a drug habit. The ASA felt the church had provided sufficient evidence to substantiate its claim.