Know Yourself. Know Life.

Know Yourself. Know Life. The new slogan for Scientology which recently aired on three new beautiful commercials entitled, You; The Search; and Life. I know as much about Scientology as I do on the Greek Orthodox Church, zilch. But these commercials took my breath away! I've seen other religions market on the tele, most notably the LDS, but nothing like what Scientology pulled off in 60 seconds of pure inspiration.

[Scientology's official logo]

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You can watch all three of them here. I saw the one entitled Life earlier in June and at first I thought it was another car commercial until they put up their slogan: Scientology. Know Yourself. Know Life. How can you not love that slogan! I'm sure there is a Buddhist group somewhere kicking themselves for not grabbing that slogan first. In fact, I'm not even aware of any other religious groups that have slogans. All three videos share one main theme: by fully understanding who we really are we can enjoy life to the fullest, and Scientology has the answers.

The really interesting thing about these commercials is it's BROAD message. So broad in fact that you can insert the name of just about any religious group and the commercial would still have the same impact. I'm sure many scoff at the end when they see Scientology flash up on the screen, but nevertheless, there is always somebody out there that will take the opportunity to look. And can you blame them? With most religious groups in the U.S. losing members now is the time to do some heavy marketing. Even Atheists are jumping on the advertising bandwagon. And why not? If you can spare the change to advertise your faith, then go for it. In fact it might even help to dispel misconceptions about certain beliefs. Last November the Muslim communities of South Florida launched a bus campaign inviting people to call real live Muslims with questions about Islam. I think it would be a great idea if every religion had some sort of hotline where anyone can call and speak to someone about their faith. Of course there is the issue of funding and hundreds, if not thousands, of crank calls or callers expressing their hatred against a particular faith.

Are any of these methods of advertising effective in anyway? I think it at least gives those who've been curious an avenue to explore other faiths. Sure we have Google, but there's always the risk of landing on a site that completely demonizes the faith you were attempting to research. But without Google we wouldn't be able to find little gems like this one.