The Billboard Was Removed
In November 2023, The Aftermath Foundation devised a new strategy to reach the estimated 4,000 Scientologists who suffer indentured servitude by virtue of their service in Scientology’s Sea Organization. These members work 16 (or more) hours daily, seven days a week. They have no guarantee of either medical or dental care. They are isolated from the outside world and cut off from their family members and former friends. Scientology controls what they see and hear. They have no access to information readily available to others on the internet or TV. They are denied basic resources and freedoms that most Americans take for granted.
As a result of extreme isolation and control, these people are trapped in a slave-like existence. The Aftermath Foundation exists to help them escape and start new lives.
In December 2023, we approached former Scientologist Phil Jones because of his successful 2016 Call Me billboard campaign that exposed Scientology’s destructive practice of “disconnection”, which tears families apart. Disconnection is the forced separation of a current Scientologist from anyone (including immediate family) who has been declared an enemy of Scientology.
Phil and his wife, Willie, suffered through disconnection when their adult children, Mike and Emily Jones, refused to communicate with them in any way after being ordered to cut off all contact by Scientology. Phil Jones joined the board of The Aftermath Foundation in March 2024.
We located the perfect billboard site close to and visible from Scientology’s buildings in Los Angeles and signed a one-year contract with Clear Channel Outdoor, including the First Right of Refusal at the end of the contract term. We developed a simple billboard design with our message and established a toll-free 24/7 helpline: 888-FREE-002.
The billboard was installed on March 11, 2024 at 9:00 AM.
Initially, Clear Channel Outdoor were incredibly supportive of our campaign. The manager told us that their office staff thought we were doing a great thing.
By 10:00 AM, Scientology had already erected a cherry picker in front of the billboard, intending to block our toll-free helpline from the view of their members. By that afternoon, they had also erected a scissor lift.
The next day, March 12, we were contacted by our Clear Channel Outdoor account representative, who told us they were under extreme pressure to remove the billboard and relocate it because Scientology claimed the message was “controversial”.
Today, Clear Channel Outdoor removed the billboard. We learned of this news when a supporter sent us a photo; we did not receive a notification from Clear Channel Outdoor in advance.
Scientology claims on its website that members are “free to leave” if they choose. Their extreme reaction to this simple billboard tells a different story.
If people are free to leave, why are they worried about a phone number that gives those wanting to leave a place to reach out to? Scientology has proven once again that they’re not the freedom of speech-loving humanitarians that they claim to be, but are instead a high-control organization that seeks to bully anyone it fears will expose its abuses. Scientology has proven that they are scared this message will be seen — because they know, just as we do, that it will be effective in helping the indentured servants escape its draconian control.
There is no better measure of the vital importance of this campaign than the drastic, over-the-top, and frantic efforts by Scientology to try to stop it.
While Clear Channel Outdoor may have folded in the face of Scientology’s bullying, we certainly will not.
We will redouble our efforts to release the four thousand slaves of Scientology’s mind control and already have alternate plans in the works to get our message heard by them.
We deeply appreciate the many people who have supported this effort.
Our phone contacts have tripled in the last three days. If you want to see more actions taken along this line, you can support our efforts by making a tax-deductible donation here.