Yes, that WAS a Scientology commercial you just saw during the 2018 Super Bowl
The 2018 Super Bowl has delivered some seriously amazing commercials: David Harbour’s Tide ad was perfection and the Doritos ad raised some big questions about Game Of Thrones. But while plenty of the ads were great, some of them were a little questionable. After one ad, viewers seemed to have just one question: Was that a Scientology ad we just saw during the Super Bowl?!
The commercial in question began with a close-up of someone typing “what is scientology” in a Google search bar, fast flashes of the giant church, as well as spectators, media, and more appeared next. The commercial ends with the words, “Curious? We thought so” in blue neon nights, followed by the url to the official Scientology site. So, yes, that was definitely a Scientology commercial you just watched.
Although it might sound crazy, it’s not the first time it’s happened. The Church of Scientology has been buying local ad spots during the Super Bowl since 2013. The ads don’t play nationwide, which might explain why you’ve never noticed them before — tonight’s ad only aired in certain markets around the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrl3bU1-vvE?start=2&feature=oembed
The ad during the 2018 game is a little different than others, as The Underground Bunker pointed out:
“In previous years, the ad tends to promote a ‘mystery sandwich’ of ideas and saves for the last seconds to reveal that the message is coming from the Church of Scientology. But this time, we see Scientology ID’d right at the beginning as we’re presented with the idea of what happens if you search on the words ‘What is Scientology’ in Google.”
The ad is obviously meant to entice people to join the Church of Scientology, or at least get them interested enough to seriously look into it. And people on Twitter have some thoughts: false
You know Scientology is terrible when their commercial looks like an expose commercial against them.
— Ty Leisher (@TyLeisher) February 5, 2018
false
That Scientology commercial is what happens when everyone is afraid to to tell David Miscavige his ideas are terrible.
— John Levenstein (@johnlevenstein) February 5, 2018
so y’all just gonna let Scientology have their own commercial like that?
— ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@neridamn) February 5, 2018
false
So far, this has to be one of the most controversial ads of the night. Let’s see if anything tops it.
