Sporting Index has been hung out to dry by the ad watchdog for running a press ad which depicted Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue “cozying up” to a bikini-clad woman, under the strapline “There’s a more exciting side to Brazil”.
Timed to coincide with the World Cup, the ad featured a digitally manipulated image of the statue to show Jesus with his right arm around the woman, his hand resting just above her bottom, and a bottle of champagne in his left hand.
The statue’s face had also been altered from a solemn expression to a smile. Devised by agency Square in the Air Communications, it ran in City AM and the Racing Post.
The Advertising Standards Authority received a total of 25 complaints, including one from the Evangelical Alliance, claiming the ad was likely to cause “serious or widespread offence”. The ASA also challenged whether the ad linked gambling with sexual success.
In its defence, Sporting Index said the digitally-altered image was intended to be “light-hearted, humorous and cartoon-like”. It argued the statue was strongly associated with Rio and Brazil as much as if not more than its religious connotations.
But the regulator was less than impressed, saying that as it was a “depiction of Jesus [it] was likely to carry a large degree of religious significance for Christians in particular, and that care should therefore be taken over its use”.
Despite the “humorous intention”, the ad was “likely to cause offence to a significant number of Christians”, the ASA said, “because it depicted the person of Jesus in a context at odds with commonly held beliefs about the nature of Christ”.
Banning the ad, the ASA also said it breached its rules by linking “gambling and sexual success” as the altered statue appeared to be celebrating a gambling win.
Dr Dave Landrum, of the Evangelical Alliance, said: “We are grateful that the Advertising Standards Authority has upheld the alliance’s view on behalf of Christians everywhere. This advertisement was in poor taste and clearly likely to cause offence.”
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ASA crucifies Sporting Index ‘partying’ Christ ad for World Cup http://t.co/qRfFp1PkjT #advertising #directmarketing