This post on Gawker yesterday caught my eye. For the subway centennial this year, they have put up lots of special posters celebrating the event. This one guy who wrote gawker noticed a specific poster that seemed a little strange --- in its blatant plug for Scientology:
Am I the only one whose noticed that one of the centennial posters is a big ad for Scientology? I saw it at the 23rd St. F/V station last night and had plenty of time to study it (late train of course). It is a stylized depiction of crowds of people in the Times Square Station - one of the American folk art style things. On the left side of the poster is a guy sitting in front of a sign advertising the book Dianetics and offering free "stress tests" at a folding table. A happy father is taking one with his kids looking on. Throughout the crowd are people with web addresses on their t-shirts, all of which are related to Scientology. Did the MTA actually pay to produce this cult ad?
So I put on my Nancy Drew cap, and did a little bit of investigation. I found the poster at the MTA store (side note: totally buying it), and took note of the artist: Kathy Jakobsen. Her name sounded familiar. I did a google search of "Kathy Jakobsen" & "Scientology" which gave me result pointing to a Kathy Jakobsen's official Scientology homepage. Hmm interesting... could this be the same Kathy? I went to the site, and checked out the 'About me' page to be sure:
Hello, my name is Kathy Jakobsen, and here is a little bit about myself:
I'm celebrating my 20th anniversary of doing oil painting. I'm a full-time artist and I have shown my work in New York. I illustrated the book "Johnny Appleseed" which was written by Reeve Lindbergh. My second and third books, I also wrote as well as illustrated. They are: "My New York" and "Meet Me in the Magic Kingdom." "This Land Is Your Land" is my fourth book. It based on the song by Woody Guthrie and it's coming out this fall. Each book that I illustrate takes around 2,000 hours of painting time. I am also a full-time mom and wife and I got interested in children's books when my kids came along
My New York! Hey, I own that! Its a cute picture book with detailed illustrations of the most famous spots in NYC. The style of that book completely matches the style of the poster... lots of people and tiny details, so the artist must be the same. I'm going to have to go back and look at the book tonight to check for Scientology propaganda...
For more on Scientology, for those of you in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend going to the musical A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant which is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life... Don't ask, just go.
Final thought. Is Kabbalah the new Scientology? Discuss.
oh my god nice work. Kabbalah is the new yoga.
Posted by: Spencer | October 28, 2004 at 07:29 AM
great sleuthing, you guys!
Posted by: alizinha | October 28, 2004 at 07:47 AM
Holy shit, you guys got Gawkered! Congrats!
Posted by: Carrie H. | October 28, 2004 at 10:55 AM
Does anyone have a larger image of this poster?
Posted by: rip | October 28, 2004 at 12:38 PM
Everybody loves "My New York" but the darn thing is filled with Scientology symbols. Check out the the taxi signs and T-shirts.
Posted by: Lisa Fain | October 28, 2004 at 02:12 PM
Puh-leeze. Who give's a rat's ass? You assume Scientology is something evil. If Kathy had sprinkled little references to Nelson Mandela or Malcolm X you crack-tards wouldn't have said "boo." Because, unthink trendoids you are, you think in memes.
Mandela = something groovy and hipster-approved to put on a t-shirt whilst buying $6 heads of lettuce at Whole Foods.
Scientology = cult. Don't have one fact, but there's just so much "negative" crap on the internet that you just have to assume it's a bad thing.
Posted by: Jim Heller | October 28, 2004 at 10:26 PM
Upon further examination of the poster I discovered nelson mandela and malcolm X holding hands and buying a $6 head of lettuce! Amazing!
Posted by: judah | October 29, 2004 at 08:00 AM
Jim Heller ...Scientologist much?
Scientology is a cult.
Yes, there are a lot of nice people who are Scientologists, but Scientology itself is a ruthless, cynical con-game.
I'm an amateur Scientology buff, and I've done a lot of research. L. Ron Hubbard was a nut. Read the forward of this biography. Fascinating stuff.
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/bfm/bfmconte.htm
www.xenu.net is a clearing house for all kinds of Scientology info. And in the sense that Kabbalah is all about getting people's money and that they use celebrities to bring in the dimwitted, insecure masses - yes, Kabbalah is the next Scientology.
Posted by: Hip E. | November 05, 2004 at 02:22 PM
Actually if you really dive into the occult background that Hubbard used to base a lot of Scientology on its the other way around. Scientology is the new Kabbalah. Kabbalah was a basis for A LOT of Aleister Crowley's occult beliefs and writings. It is the mystical part of Judism.
The "New" Kabbalah of Hollywood today I don't know much about but it sounds like some people took a page out of Hubbard's scheme to re-package their material.
Chicken meet Egg.
Posted by: John Smith | August 06, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Here is the official clearing house for all kinds of Scientology info: http://www.scientology.org/
Best way to find out what Scientology is, is to read a book (like "Dianetics" or "Problems of Work") or to do a basic course at your local Church.
Then you can decide whether it works or not. Think for yourself.
Alex.
Posted by: Alex T. | August 08, 2007 at 10:40 PM