Egypt4u

VATICAN CITY – International clothing retailer Benetton pulled a provocative ad featuring Pope Benedict XVI kissing a Muslim cleric on Wednesday after the Vatican threatened legal action to protect the pope's image.



Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi had called the Benetton campaign a "totally unacceptable" show of "grave disrespect."

The image of Benedict kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb, imam of the renowned al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, was pulled almost immediately after the Vatican protested.

"We reiterate that the meaning of this campaign is exclusively to combat the culture of hatred in all its forms," a Benetton Group spokesman said in an official statement.

"We are therefore sorry that the use of the image of the pope and the imam has so offended the sentiments of the faithful. In corroboration of our intentions, we have decided, with immediate effect, to withdraw this image from every publication."

The Italian company's "UNHATE" campaign is intended to promote a new foundation dedicated to "the creation of a new culture of tolerance … building on Benetton's underpinning values."

The campaign features digitally altered photos of world leaders kissing each other on the mouth, including President Obama with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Like most of the other images in the campaign, the fake photo of Benedict and El-Tayeb depicted two leaders whose relations have lately been marked by tension. In January, al-Azhar suspended interfaith dialogue with the Vatican to protest the pope's call for better protection of Egypt's embattled Christian minority.

Lombardi had called the image an "offense against the sentiments of the faithful" and evidence of how advertising can "violate the elementary rules of respect for persons in order to draw attention through provocation."

Benetton has a long record of using shocking images — including photographs of death row inmates and a dying AIDS patient — in its publicity campaigns.

Before the ad was pulled, Lombardi said that the Vatican was "considering the steps to take with the competent authorities to guarantee suitable protection of respect for the figure of the Holy Father."

The White House also expressed displeasure with the Benetton ad, but stopped short of threatening legal action.

"The White House has a long-standing policy disapproving of the use of the president's name and likeness for commercial purposes," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.


Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/s ... csp=34news

Benetton will do anything to get publicity, but they always dress it up as something else, some good cause or another, what a load of crap.
What are you betting that they are more afraid of the reaction of a few Muslim fanatics than of offending a few million Catholics.

What or who is Benetton? Maybe I'm just drawing a blank right now but I don't think I've ever heard of Benetton.

Interesting images. Not too sure what the point is that they're making. If they're going for shock value they've got that but I'm failing to see a 'point' to this that Benetton might be trying to make.

They are essentially a clothing manufacturer and have often used contraversial advertising, their advertising slogans usually contains the phrase "The united colours of Benniton"

Horus wrote:Benetton will do anything to get publicity, but they always dress it up as something else, some good cause or another, what a load of crap.
What are you betting that they are more afraid of the reaction of a few Muslim fanatics than of offending a few million Catholics.

Yes Horus, this one is particularly clever.

They will no doubt have some P.C connived idea about what they were trying to symbolise in the image..

ohhhhhh a clothing store branch........hmmmm - interesting non-pc advertising.

Having the ad' pulled has achieved it's objective

( here we are discussing it... )

Clever beggars the Advertisers and P.R. Folk.. I'd shoot the lot of them

Yup - they've achieved their goal! "WE" are talking! (Guess that is what they get paid the BIG bucks for!)

This should make Catholics think about breeding and baptising......


http://www.sott.net/articles/show/22025 ... in-his-day


Nothing we didn't already know. Men in dresses buggering altar boys and the Sisters of Mercy. The real shocker is that these people haven't been prosecuted for their crimes.

Another year-old article, still not woken up, Jewel.

And exactly WHAT does that have to do with the content of the article morgita?
Seems that even when they confess it in public no one does anything!
It appears that religious organisations not only get tax exemption, but are above the law in so many areas.
And the brainwashed people won't believe it, even if he says it in their faces!!! Dumb sheep!!!