The Church of Scientology launched a public relations campaign on Twitter during HBO’s airing of a documentary pitted against Scientology.
Alex Gibney’s controversial documentary, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, aired Sunday night on HBO.
“Going Clear” and “Scientology” were both trending nationwide on Twitter. The Church of Scientology issued a series of promoted tweets to call attention to what Scientology is and what Scientologists believe.
WHAT IS SCIENTOLOGY? Find out for yourself. https://t.co/NUnWMCd499
— Scientology (@Scientology) March 30, 2015
AdWeek compared the ads to politicians countering their opposing party, such as when Republicans bought Twitter ads during one of President Obama’s State of the Union addresses. They also compared the Church of Scientology to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when they purchased ads in the playbill of the Book of Mormon Broadway show.
A spokesperson for the church, Karin Pouw, responded to the impact of the Twitter ads:
“We had an all-time high interest in Scientology during the airing of the HBO show. Over 50,000 people came to our website before we even issued a tweet. As there were so many people curious and interested, we decided to spread the word.”
Read the full analysis of the social marketing campaign on AdWeek.