Anon-007

Chaps,

We need to whack in some complaints about The Way To Happiness TV Commercials.

One person has so far, and the Cult managed to wriggle out of it (info below)

If a few more of us complain, we can get the commercial totally banned!

Info below --------------------------------------------------------------

(Direct pagelink here (the UK ASA site and not a scilon site): The Way to Happiness Foundation International)


ASA Adjudications

The Way to Happiness Foundation International
201 E. Broadway Avenue
Glendale
California 91205
USA
Number of complaints: 1

Date: 17 June 2009
Media: Television
Sector: Non-commercial
Agency: Horizon Media Inc


Ad
A TV ad, for The Way to Happiness Foundation, featured a series of shots of people around the world engaged in religious practices, including a Buddhist Monk sounding a gong, a man kissing the Weeping Wall, a large group of Muslims praying, a man with a rosary, a Hindu temple and morning prayers at a Mosque. At the end of the ad, text appeared on screen which stated "RESPECT THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF OTHERS". This was replaced by The Way to Happiness Foundation's logo and their website address.

Issue
A viewer believed the ad was misleading because she believed The Way to Happiness Foundation (TWTHF) was part of the Church of Scientology and the true identity of the advertiser was omitted from the ad.
BCAP TV Advertising Code: 5.1.1;10.16;5.1.2

Response
TWTHF said they were not part of the Church of Scientology, but a non-religious public benefit corporation, which had maintained an independent existence since its incorporation in 1984. They said it was run by its own Board of Directors, none of whom were employed by, or an officer or director of, any religious organisation. They said TWTHF was not known by any other name, including, but not limited to, the Church of Scientology. The said their specific purpose was to raise the moral standards of society through education and dissemination of a common-sense moral code, and their programme of activities was based on L. Ron Hubbards book The Way to Happiness. They said, although L. Ron Hubbard was widely known as the Founder of Scientology, the non-religious book was written for broad use throughout society and applied to anyone regardless of religious faith or philosophy and not confined to one faith tradition. TWTHF believed there was nothing religious or doctrinal about any of the principles in the book, which they said were simple good advice for the most basic of lifes needs. They said schools, prisons, athletes and companies and Government departments throughout the world used the book. They said their objective was to disseminate a common-sense moral code, not to promote a religious, doctrinal or political message.

TWTHF said the message of the TV ad was to encourage people to respect the religious beliefs of others and included a number of religious images, but no particular doctrine received prominence or was being promoted. They believed it was clear from their logo and website address in the ad who it was that was advertising.

Clearcast said they sought reassurance when clearing the script that TWTHF had no overt links to Scientology, which, if that had been the case, would need to have been stated in the ad. They said they were told by TWTHF that the Foundation was not part of any Scientology church and maintained a completely independent existence as a corporate entity and was recognised by the United States Internal Revenue Service as an independent charity. They told Clearcast that they were funded by donations from people, companies, Government agencies and schools who bought the book. Because L. Ron Hubbard wrote the book, many of their individual supporters would be Scientologists, but they did not believe this could be interpreted as being funded by Scientology. Clearcast said, having seen the book, they were satisfied that TWTHF had no strong links to Scientology, but sought a final view from their Copy Committee. They were also content that TWTHF had no particular links with Scientology and agreed the ad should be approved.

Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA understood that TWTHF had been in existence since 1984, was recognised by the US Internal Revenue Service as a charity in its own right, and its Articles of Incorporation contained no reference to Scientology. We noted that the booklet they distributed to fund the Foundation did not refer to Scientology, but was a guide to moral conduct. We also noted that the ad did not make any substantial claims other than a call to respect the religious beliefs of others. We acknowledged that, because the Founder of the Church of Scientology wrote the book, the Foundation would be of interest and receive support from Scientologists, but we nonetheless considered that TWTHF was likely to be seen to be maintaining its own identity and advertising on its own behalf. We considered that it was clear from the logo and website address in the ad that TWTHF was responsible for the ad. Because we considered that the ad did not misrepresent the identity of the advertisers, we concluded that it was unlikely to mislead viewers.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 (Misleading advertising) and 10.16 (Identification) but did not find it in breach.

Action
No further action necessary.

AnotherRIAnon

If Britchan was able to get that furry filled Orangina commercial banned I see know reason why you guys can't pull this off. Go get em you glorious bastards.

For RI Anons
http://rogueisland.ning.com/

For MA Anons
http://non.violentuprising.com

Don't forget to thank Pam from the Melbourne Australia Org
http://forums.enturbulation.org/7-ge...anently-13748/

The upper OT levels consist of nothing but auditing body thetans.

JohnnyRUClear

Isn't Slappy on video boasting about TWTHF in at least one of those dreadful 3-hour IAS shebangs? Or does he only talk about the book per se? If the latter, would that still be enough to draw the connection?

I'd link it but I don't know where it is or which year it was. I just recall seeing a video about all the fronts like Narconon, the orgs, etc. moving out like an octopus.

Hey OSA:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." So, who/what checks Miscavige's power?

"Now, to compound the comedy"
--M. Rathbun

The_Beacon

The only way you will be able to even get the ASA to investigate this again is by providing solid evidence that the Way To Happiness Foundation is controlled by the Church of Scientology, and/or that there is a money trail from TWTHF to CoS or the RTC. The Miscavige video is a good place to start, but I'm not sure it would be enough.

Blog

Sponge

ATTN: Britfags - Scilons lie to ASA

David Miscavige's worst nightmare: www.truthrundown.org

Operation Clambake on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oper_clambake
whyaretheydead.net replacement site now live at: http://www.whyaretheydead.info

Ogsonofgroo

Pretty sure there is all sorts of linkage available, its one of lron's babies, the mother's might be hard ta pin down, but the dad is obvious.

Another head of the recruitment hydra.

'Nemo me impune lacessit.'

LRon wuz a jeenious! >

"We, by the way, have generated atomic fission without the use of uranium. This is not a difficult thing to do. All you do is synthesize a gamma ray and synthesize some other rays and by concentrating them, you can get an atomic explosion."
("Radiation", lecture of 5 November 1956)

http://www.scientology-lies.com/liesindex.html

MongoLloyd

Get dox showing the copyright on Hubbard's shit doesn't belong to them.
Get dox on who the board of TWTHF is (should be public record) and get dox showing they're Scilons.
Get dox showing TWTF paying royalties to New Era Pubs or RTC or whoever.

mrfyde

I think those things are already in the other thread about this issue.

Good dox in the leaked IRS agreement. Also on the bottom of a THWTH letter in the other thread.

Anonymous excels at one thing, that is spreading information around the globe at nearly 80% of the speed of light and that is kryptonite to organizations that rely on secrecy.

Johnny Thunder

bumping action.

becoming addicted to big win news, hasn't been too much juice these last 24 hours. Kinda expecting DM to come out of the closet tomorrow, otherwise it will seem like a slow news day. Sigh. These are truly great times....

Anonymous

don't forget to add the dox from the clear expansion commitee stuff

https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Sc...ttee_documents

and the command channels of scientology

https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Co...of_Scientology

themadhair

The Command channels is less good unfortunately. I sent this harpoon of 12 days ago with absolutely no response - The Way To Scientology?errr?.Happiness Dialogue Ireland

Time to break out the harpoons in force then since the ASA clearly drunk the kool aid.

Chanology is a flower that grew out of a hole filled with internet shoite. As long as that shoite provides nourishment, that flower will continue to thrive and bloom.

Anonymous Ireland

New to chanology? Want to know if there is Anonymous in your area? Find out at http://www.anonstillalive.com/

Antagone

The ASA is full of fail but harpoons will be launched.

Where was the advert shown to begin with?

Northern Ireland Anonymous
The day the judge tells the bailiff to retrieve the booster chair for the witness stand will be the day my boner is so huge I will die from lack of bloodflow to the rest of my body - Anonymous

Anonymous

pg 28 of the command lines

"In order to do this we need aolo service organizations to be above their make0break point and expanded to and beyond the size of the old Saint Hill. we need thousands if Scientology missions which contact and introduce new public to scientology and get them on the way up the bridge to total freedom. We need thousands of auditors who audit. The World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, the social reform groups such as Narconon, Applied Scholastics and education alive, The Way to Happiness Foundation, Criminon need each to be as big as the rest of scientology

Anonymous

oops some typos there
pg 28 of the command lines

themadhair

I missed that on the first, second and third reading. Thanks.

Chanology is a flower that grew out of a hole filled with internet shoite. As long as that shoite provides nourishment, that flower will continue to thrive and bloom.

Anonymous Ireland

New to chanology? Want to know if there is Anonymous in your area? Find out at http://www.anonstillalive.com/

Anonymous

properly applied, this ought to do it.

Anonymous

Tbh, the fact that TWTH has received as much legit criticism as it has in the past, shows just how reviled Scientology is. Really and truly, it's one of the most difficult Front Groups to expose, because they don't carry out most of the fraudulent/abusive activities that other Sci fronts do (e.g. Narconon).

Showing Command Lines is useful, but documentary evidence (as per the quote above) of Scientology's cynical use of it is gonna hit hardest.

That said, I reckon there are much easier front groups to attack and expose.

FUCK

^^^ Agreed.

Indiana Anonymous at cause!
http://indiananon.ning.com

Suzette

This is going to be difficult to pull off. I assume that TWTH Foundation has been specifically set up to avoid being a religion by whatever definition the ASA uses. Plus TWTH is pretty bland stuff and (unlike Study Tech) might not be recognized as Scientology by someone who was very familiar with Scientology but somehow didn't know LRH wrote TWTH.

Some points:

The church sells this book.
The church gives this book away with a complete set of "The Basics."
The church urges its members to buy and give away copies of this book.
The church exaggerates how many non-Scientology organizations use this book.

But the thing that you really want is some upper level Scientologist saying that TWTH is magic--that if you read it, you'll somehow realize that you shouldn't steal and murder where before you were a vicious sociopath with no morals whatsoever.

afternon

There may be another (somewhat leftfield) approach..

The "church of anonymous" requests copies for dissemination because we wholeheartedly agree that people need to be free and happy as it's part of our theocracy, similarly, we offer government booklets about seeking counseling, therapy to give alongside TWTH..

That'll make the cult jumpy and surely they wouldn't refuse to give us the booklets on religious grounds?!

You mocked up your reactive mind- clear cognition.
OT8- you mocked up your past lives and L Ron is the Antichrist. Other OT stuff, too boring to mention...

Stuff you may leik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb-q4q0cKRk