Ad description
A teleshopping ad for religious healing, entitled "Sid Roth's It's Supernatural!" was broadcast on Daystar. The broadcast featured a presenter, Sid Roth, interviewing a man named Thurman Scrivner, who made various claims that he could heal people's illnesses through prayer. A voice-over later described the contents of "Thurman Scrivner's Faith Walker's Package" which viewers could purchase for US$39. The voice-over referred to the package being able to provide customers with the "key" to receiving their miracle and healing.
Claims included: "My guest guarantees ... you will be healed"; "I have heard that someone's neck has been healed. I have heard that people with skeletal problems, the pain is gone anywhere in your bones"; "I guarantee you can be healed"; "I've seen people raised from the dead"; "I've seen brainstems put back together"; and "I've seen new organs put into people's bodies".
The interviewee also gave an account of a woman being healed who had suffered from stomach ulcers, as well as a boy who had been suffering from warts which covered his body. He also described an experience in which his granddaughter had suffered serious injuries, including a severed brainstem and multiple organ damage, which had left her on life support. The interviewee described praying for her to be fully healed, and how she had survived the accident.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was irresponsible and harmful because it implied that faith healing could treat health problems and exploited the hopes and fears of the vulnerable.
Response
Sid Roth's Messianic Vision said they were happy not to broadcast that particular episode of the show again.
Daystar said Sid Roth's evangelical rhetoric was well known to their audience and to all those interested in the supernatural generally. They said the quotes from the programme should be taken in the overall context of the presentation, and that they should not be taken literally, because that was not how the self-selecting audience would view them. They said the audience would understand the context of a very well-known, over-the-top approach, using language and rhetoric that all viewers would recognise as figurative. They said that was an established characteristic of the nature of the Sid Roth presentations, although they acknowledged that he may have, on that occasion, gone too far. They believed an implication that faith healing could treat health problems was permissible under the BCAP Code, which they said allowed spiritual well-being to be implied.
Assessment
Upheld
The BCAP Code stated that advertisements must not claim that faith healing, miracle-working or faith-based counselling could treat, cure or alleviate physical or mental health problems. They could, however, make restrained and proportionate claims that such services could benefit emotional or spiritual well-being.
The ASA noted that the ad contained a number of references to healing physical injuries, such as neck injuries and skeletal problems, and noted the claim that pain would be gone "anywhere in your bones", which we considered was a clear reference to physical pain, rather than emotional or spiritual well-being. Again, there were references to, among other things, a woman being healed of stomach ulcers and a boy being healed of warts covering his body, which again we considered clearly referred to physical conditions. We were also concerned about references to the healing of a severed brain stem and multiple organ damage.
We considered that making such claims was also likely to exploit the hopes and fears of vulnerable people, especially those who were ill or whose family or friends were ill.
Because the ad had claimed that faith healing could cure physical health problems, and because we considered that it was likely to exploit the fears of vulnerable people, we concluded that it was irresponsible and had breached the Code.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules 1.2 1.2 Advertisements must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to the audience and to society. (Responsible advertising), and 15.12 15.12 Advertisements must not exploit the hopes or fears of the vulnerable. The elderly, the sick and the bereaved should be regarded as especially vulnerable. and 15.13 15.13 Advertisements must not claim that faith healing, miracle working or faith-based counselling can treat, cure or alleviate physical or mental health problems; they may, however, make restrained and proportionate claims that such services can benefit emotional or spiritual well-being. (Faith, religion and systems of belief).
Action
The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form. We told Sid Roth's Messianic Vision not to state or imply that faith healing could treat health problems, nor to exploit the hopes and fears of the vulnerable.
