Another ad gets Catholics mad
This time it’s an ice-cream manufacturer that has upset the biscuit-munchers with an ad which contains religious imagery.
The Advertising Standards Authority has received 40 complaints about the Antonio Federici poster depicting a pregnant nun about to tuck in to some posh dairy-based dessert
because it mocks the virgin birth of Jesus.
Here it is:
This is not the first time Federici has got into trouble with the ASA. Last June it was ordered not to republish an ad with featured a nun and a priest about to kiss. The judgement concluded that it breached COP Code 5.1 (decency):
We considered that the portrayal of the priest and nun in a sexualised manner and the implication that they were considering whether or not to give in to temptation, was likely to cause serious offence to some readers.
Here’s that one:
They’re getting offended rather a lot these days, the Catholics. If they weren’t Catholics, they wouldn’t be offended so much. An obvious answer presents itself.
I find the older one offensive because the man is airbrushed so much he looks like a plastic mannequin. The new one’s rather fun though.
All this getting offended isn’t an attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that the RCC is a vile cesspool of iniquity is it?
Just so that you all know, Vincent Nichols has come out and said that he does not want vuvuzelas blowing at the Pope when he comes to visit.
I’m hugely disappointed they haven’t complained on the grounds of doctrinal inaccuracy, since the top ad seems to make the common error of conflating the immaculate conception with the virgin birth; the former in fact refers to the Catholic belief that Mary was, uniquely among the human race, conceived without the taint of original sin.
You are right, Joe. I forgot about that. In fact, the complainers themselves seem to be under that misapprehension when they say the ad “mocks the virgin birth of Jesus.”
Surely the priest and the nun in the first ad. should actually be a priest offering sweeties, or scrumptious ice cream, to a child. That would seem to fit the facts a little better.
Prompted by your coverage of their outrage – which was the first time I’d seen either ad, or even heard of the company – I bought some of their ice cream. It was delicious.