Advertising Standards Agency Bans Church of Scientology TV Ad for Misleading Viewers

The TV watchdog in the UK has banned a Scientology advert on account of the claim that it gives aid to "24 million" people. The data was supposedly derived from records spanning 1998 to 2014. However, the ASA deemed this "anecdotal" and called into question what "giving aid" actually constituted.

The ASA stated:

“It was also unclear whether the church had included the total number of people in a community in cases where general community work had been carried out and, if that was the case, we had concerns about whether that was an accurate method of calculating the number of people given aid,” said the ASA. “Furthermore, we had concerns that there appeared to be no checks in place to ensure that individuals who were given aid were not counted more than once towards the overall figure.”

The evidence seemed not to back up the claim. As the ASA said:

“We concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was likely to mislead viewers. We told the Church of Scientology International to ensure they held adequate evidence for any claims that viewers were likely to regard as objective and capable of substantiation.”

Two further claims about drug campaigning and human rights awareness were not upheld.

Personally, I would treat any claim they make with extreme caution.

[Source]