Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Irish Jesuit Stand Up For Decency

Sexist Internet Gambling Ads Banned in the Tube
Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker known for its shocking advertisements that in the past have depicted a scandalous scene of Jesus Christ gambling during the Last Supper, have overstepped their boundaries once again, this time with an inappropriate ad showing female breasts....on a man. London Underground (also known as "The Tube") has banned an ad campaign by Paddy Power that features a man who appears to be breastfeeding a baby. The poster ad, one of three that promotes the company's new online bingo business, has been banned by LU operator Transport for London's compliance committee.A spokesman for Paddy Power said that the poster, which uses the strap line "Where have all the women gone?", was banned on the grounds that it had the "potential to offend public decency". "I'll say!" agrees Gambling911.com Senior Editor, Payton O'Brien, and a staunch advocate for decency. "No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness”.
Disturbing Trend
Paddy Power has previously fended off the wrath of Christians in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland over an advert depicting Jesus and the Apostles gambling at the Last Supper. The billboard posters, on display in the Irish capital, adapt Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the event to show Jesus with a stack of poker chips, Judas with 30 pieces of silver and other apostles clutching hands of cards ......Father Micheal MacGreil, Jesuit priest at St Francis Xavier's Church in central Dublin, branded the advert "grossly inappropriate and vulgar". "This is an insult to the religious sensitivities of a lot of people and should be withdrawn immediately," he told Reuters. The Irish Independent headline reads, "It's holy war over Jesus the gambler poster".

Link (here)

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