The Catholics who are offended remind me of those Muslims that murder over similar slights.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Actually, I am exercising my prerogatives as a conservative capitalist -- to spend my money on products and/or services from companies that I choose to do business with. And I am exercising my Constitutional right of free speech and free assembly/associaton afforded to me as a citizen of a democratic republic
After seeing the ad, I no longer choose to do business with PepsiCo .. and I choose to associate with those who will engage in the boycott and will freely speak my support for a boycott.
Boycott ALL of the following brand names: Pepsi Frito-Lay Gatorade Quaker Oats Tropicana Wimm Bill Dann
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Step aside Tim Tebow. The evangelical quarterback's pro-family ad was last year's Super Bowl ad dust up. In 2011, the hot spot is an entry in the annual Pepsi-owned Doritos Crash the Super Bowl ad contest that will never air for being over-the-top offensive to Catholics. It plays the sacrament for snack food.
But the body and blood of Christ are no joke to Catholics who believe they are in Communion with their God when they accept the Eucharist and the wine during Mass.
Hence the uproar among some believers when they saw one of the 5,000+ entries in the annual competition for a slot in the Super Bowl ad line up.
Feed your Flock begins with a Catholic priest at his desk surrounded by bills for the parish, which clearly needs more income in the collection plate (why else show the stack of bills?).
Since it's his job to offer spiritual food to the flock, he takes it to another level (the pits, I'd say). The video shows the faithful lining up for Communion and getting Doritos (in two flavors, no less) instead of the Eucharist, the sacramental bread which Catholics believe is the body of Christ. And, you guessed it, the sacramental wine, considered to be the blood of Christ, is dished out as Pepsi MAX.
You don't have to be Catholic to find this irredeemably offensive. Hence, I'm not embedding the video. According to the Mashable Business site,
The maker of the ad, a Philadelphia firm called Media Wave Productions, however, says that interpretation is way off base....
Dave Williams, president of MediaWave, says he pulled the ad from Pepsi's site and from YouTube. "We felt bad," he says. "Our intention was to win, not to offend."
Ya think? How could it have been anything but offensive to the one in four Americans who call themselves Catholic? What's surprising is that it made it up on the Pepsi site for consideration at all. Were there no standards for submission?
Needless to say, the Pepsico site listing the top 10 finalists does not include Feed your Flock and a representative of the company apologized for any offense.
Last year's hot Super Bowl ad was a funny bit from Focus on the Family featuring Tim Tebow and his mother Pam -- funny because it fooled abortion-rights supporters into giving Focus reams of free advance publicity. This year a contest entry for a Doritos ad -- now withdrawn -- could do the same for the snack food.
It's enough to make me nostalgic for last year's Tebow hullabaloo when it became known that college quarterback, known for his evangelical faith and his drive to be picked in the NFL draft, would star with his mom, Pam, in a Super Bowl "issue ad" sponsored by Focus on the Family.
Abortion rights supporters protested that the "issue ad" would be an anti-abortion pitch from Pam, who held on through a dangerous pregnancy against doctor's advice to give birth to the future Heisman Trophy winner. The controversy gave the ad mountains of free publicity and Focus came away the winner as the friendly, funny Focus ad did nothing more than promote family -- and steer folks to their web site for the real, deeply detailed anti-abortion messaging.
So welcome to the Super Bowl ad frenzy where we all get played.
Logged
