Blog: Massive, Straight Up and Vertical International Expansion – Really Dave? - 2012-04-08 a

Massive, Straight Up and Vertical International Expansion – Really Dave? April 8, 2012, Marty Rathbun, Moving On Up a Little Higher

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By Mike Rinder

There have been many posts and numerous comments on this blog mocking the overhyped "expansion news" that Miscavige feeds his captive audience of clubbed seals at events. They are well trained to applaud every time there is a loud explosion and a line bursts through the top right corner of a graphic on screen. No other stimulus is required: disbelief is suspended and all critical thinking is cast aside. He tosses out stinking fish and the seals don't even stop to chew – they swallow it whole and with relish.

Of late, in response to exposing the truth about the sham campaigns ("give us money so we can air ads all over the world" and none are ever seen by anyone except maybe on the Home Shopping Network at 4am), Miscavige bit the bullet and started shelling out for ads to appear on mainstream, high profile TV shows in the US. Of course, he can't say something different in these ads to what he says at his events, hence they tout: "growing faster today than anytime in history", "more than 10,000 churches, missions and groups", "welcoming over 4.4 million new people each year" and "grassroots groups starting every 24 hours." Unfortunately, no matter how untrue or misleading these statements are, Miscavige knows no regulatory entity is going to bother taking the church to task for false advertising.