Jesus ad angers church groups
By DAILY TELEGRAPH
Added: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 UTC
Thanks to Michael Murray for the link.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22948534-5006301,00.html
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1.69 MB jesus ad
CHRISTIAN leaders have branded a television commercial depicting the baby Jesus tossing gifts back at the three wise men as tacky and offensive.
The ad for electronic goods retailers Betta Electrical recreates the Christian nativity scene, showing three wise men offering gifts to baby Jesus as he lies in the manger.
The commercial, which has angered Anglican and Catholic leaders, shows Jesus throwing gifts out of the manger as the words "Give a better gift" flash on the TV screen.
Christian leaders criticised the ad, calling it a tacky and offensive exploitation of religious imagery which perverts the true meaning of Christmas.
This ad comes "within the orbit of tacky Christmas things", senior Sydney Anglican bishop Glenn Davies told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
"The gifts that the wise men were giving were appropriate for a king, so the notion that Jesus would reject them is absurd," Dr Davies said.
"Obviously this company wants to get the divine seal of approval on their goods but I can't imagine it will help them sell anything."
A spokesman for Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said the use of Christ was inappropriate.
"The advertisement is interesting because it shows how commercialised Christmas has become," he said.
But Julieanne Worchurst, marketing manager at BSR Group which operates more than 170 Betta Electrical stores, said the ad was "intended to be a tongue-in-cheek and humorous approach to the gift giving season".
"We accept that this could have been seen as offensive, but that was not the intention at all. The ad was never intended to upset or disrupt people's Christmas," she said.
Ms Worchurst said while the company had received just two complaints from viewers, the ad would be pulled if community outrage to the campaign grew.
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