Thursday, September 08, 2011

Jesus thumbs-up ad gets thumbs down

We read:
"Britain's advertising watchdog has banned a mobile phone company commercial which featured a cartoon Jesus who winked and gave a thumbs-up gesture.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the Phones 4 U campaign, which carried the slogan: "Miraculous deals on Samsung Galaxy Android phones", appeared to be mocking the Christian faith.

"We considered that, although the ads were intended to be light-hearted and humorous, their depiction of Jesus winking and holding a thumbs-up sign, with the text "miraculous" deals during Easter, the Christian Holy Week which celebrated Christ's resurrection, gave the impression that they were mocking and belittling core Christian beliefs," the ASA said today.

"We therefore concluded that the ads were disrespectful to the Christian faith and were likely to cause serious offence, particularly to Christians."

Source

Are Christians that thin-skinned? I guess some may be. But compared to the abuse that gets hurled at American Christians, it's pretty trivial.

Anyway, Christians are heavily discriminated against in Britain so I suppose it's good to see them getting a bit of recognition.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a born again believer in Christ Jesus, and an evangelical in spreading the truth of His love and forgiveness. I think the ad sounds hilarious and am no even remotely offended.

TheOldMan said...

I don't comprehend why a picture of JC winking with a thumbs-up gesture would shake the basis of my faith? It's a picture. I recall the "Piss Christ" display years ago. Yes, I found it offensive, childish, immature, but in the end it was just a crucifix upside down in a jar of urine. How did it affect my Christian faith? That's between God and me, not some "artist" or adman. Grow up!

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear that you're more "grown up" than some other "Christians" who demonstrate and protest with placards and loud aggressive voices, etc. whenever they don't like what some other groups do lawfully in an allegedly democratic society.

Anonymous said...

While I have personal thoughts regarding the flippant use of Jesus' image or name for commercial purposes, I am not nearly as offended with this as I am with the daily operations of the ACLU.

I say let the advertiser carry on. It is kinda funny. Kinda. If Jesus has issues with it, he can ask them about it personally come the end of days.

President Not Sure said...

I havent seen the ad in the article.. But in my head I can only see the "Buddy Christ" statue from the movie Dogma..

Anonymous said...

no true Christian is offended, it's hype.

Anonymous said...

Generally speaking, and looking at the overall picture of today's British society, does anyone really believe that had we let Hitler take control of the country, that things would have turned out this bad?

Anonymous said...

Who is "we" doing the "letting"? It's very doubtful Hitler was even capable of a successful or sustained occupation of Britain, as the Brits had resisted long enough to prepare for sabotaging or undermining any attempted invasion. Hitler was also over-stretching his resources and showing increasing incompetence as Leader/Führer (getting sicker and madder!).