PODCAST: Examining Scientology’s new marketing juggernaut, a ‘Wider Bridge’
Recently, Scientology has been advertising a big advance they are referring to as a ‘wider Bridge,’ which was to be announced last week. Well, it turns out that it’s just David Miscavige’s way to get Scientologists excited that local orgs are dropping some Covid protocols and starting up things like the Purification Rundown.
In others words, it’s pure marketing and not really an advance at all, something that Mike Rinder made fun of in a great blog post this week.
We wanted to talk to someone about Dave’s latest marketing ploy, and who better than the best marketer Scientology ever had, the man who came up with famous erupting volcano TV ad for Dianetics in the 1980s, Jefferson Hawkins.
If you’ve read Jefferson’s terrific book Counterfeit Dreams you know that he had a unique path in his 34 years in Scientology, which led to his major influence on its marketing to the public. We reviewed some of that history, and what has happened to Scientology’s public image since he left.
Today, we’re releasing the tenth episode of The Underground Bunker Podcast to our paid subscribers at Substack. You should receive it presently at your email inbox if you’re on the list.
Not a paid subscriber? Well, we have something for you, too. Last week’s episode was with Marc Headley, hilariously explaining why he took the time to put a lengthy reply on a Scientologist’s YouTube video. In the weeks before, we talked to Patty Moher, Geoff Levin, Pete Griffiths, Sunny Pereira, Jeffrey Augustine, and Claire Headley.
Those first nine episodes are now free to all of our subscribers, paid and unpaid. All of our podcast episodes can be found here.
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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