

We seem to catch people by surprise every time we point this out, but ABCMouse is not only a hugely successful digital educational enterprise, it’s also helping its owner, Age of Learning founder Doug Dohring, funnel millions of dollars in donations to the Church of Scientology.

Last October, Doug and his wife Laurie were celebrated with their new trophy at Scientology’s annual IAS gala in England after their cumulative giving had reached $20 million. That puts the Dohrings in the very top of wealthy Scientology donors, and there’s no question that they’re helping to keep the organization going despite declining membership.








It’s simply not a stretch to say that Doug’s fabulously successful ABCMouse is helping to keep Scientology afloat, one toddler mouse-click at a time.

And now, we have even creepier evidence to cement that connection. ABCMouse has a new set of ads coming out, and they were made by a Scientologist-owned company, TXL Films. Perhaps not surprisingly, they look an awful lot like the ads Scientology itself puts out, like the one it pays to show during the Super Bowl each year.

Here’s one of the new ads put out a few days ago by TXL films. Veteran Bunker readers who have been watching Scientology ads for years will see the resemblance right away…







For comparison, here’s Scientology’s 2015 Super Bowl ad, “Age of Answers”…







See the resemblance?

So, who is TXL Films, the agency that made the Scientology-like ABCMouse ad? TXL refers to its founder, filmmaker Taron Lexton, a Scientologist who is married to Scientologist actress Marisol Nichols. He’s also the son of South African Scientologist Mary Shuttleworth, who is responsible for founding several Scientology front groups, including the organizations advocating for human rights. “Youth for Human Rights,” for example, was started by Shuttleworth, and it sends out DVDs of short films about human rights to schools around the world — and some of those short films were shot by her son, Taron.

TXL’s CEO, Nathan Lorch, and producer Milena Ferreira are also Scientologists, and they’ve been working together for years.





[Taron Lexton]

Lexton, Lorch, and Ferreira were behind a seven-minute 2008 short film, Struck, that had a mostly Scientology cast, including Lynsey Bartilson, Nancy Cartwright, Erika Christensen, Jason Dohring (Doug’s son), Denice Duff, Michael Fairman (who soon after left the church), Beth Reisgraf, Jim Meskimen, Marisol Nichols, Ethan Suplee, Jenna Elfman and her husband Bodhi Elfman.

Here’s the film’s summary at IMDB: “On his way to work one day, Joel (Bodhi Elfman) is impaled through the chest by a three-foot arrow. But it doesn’t harm him. And it won’t come out. So Joel has to learn to deal – both with his newfound protrusion, and his own painful loneliness. He tries to go to work, to date women, but no one seems ready to accept his strange flaw. Little does he know, his life is about to change forever…”

Lexton teamed up again with Nancy Cartwright for her recent labor of love, last year’s In Search of Fellini, also largely a Scientologist affair. And Lexton’s other feature film credit that he mentions at his TXL bio is the cinematography work he did with Scientologist studio exec Terry Jastrow on 2015’s The Squeeze, another largely Scientologist effort whose list of producers included infamous Tom Cruise spy Michael Doven and Jastrow’s wife, actress Anne Archer.

“Here’s a movie that would benefit from being broken up by late-night television commercials,” RogerEbert.com reviewer Odie Henderson said about the Jastrow-penned film, which garnered a disappointing 17 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Well, whatever. As long as Scientologists want to make films, Taron Lexton will apparently be there to help them. And he’s got a good thing going with ABCMouse — the LA Times estimated in 2016 that 1 million families were paying about $80 a year for the service.

And that kind of business has attracted some big investments, including $150 million in 2015 from Iconiq Capital, an investment fund led by none other than Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Looks like the Dohrings will be funding Scientology well into the future!



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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…







Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.



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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 21, 2018 at 07:00

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The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

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