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An advertising campaign using a fake image of Pope Benedict kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips has been pulled after protests from the Vatican.
The “Unhate” campaign, sponsored by the Benetton clothing company, was aimed at fostering tolerance and ‘global love.’
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi denounced the ad as ‘false’, and an ‘unacceptable provocation.’
“It shows a grave lack of respect for the pope,” Lombardi said in a statement.
Lombardi described the image as “an offence against the sentiments of the faithful and a clear example of how advertising can violate elementary rules of respect for people in order to attract attention through provocation.”
He said the Vatican was studying measures to protect the pontiff’s image.
Catholic Communications Auckland spokesperson, Lyndsay Freer said “Benetton seems to be living on another planet if they think that images of world leaders in homosexual kissing might be viewed as “constructive provocation” that will promote tolerance and global love.”
“An oxymoron if ever there was one.”
“To depict the pontiff and an iman in such a way is an outrage not only against the person of Pope Benedict and Christianity, but also against Islam,” she said.
The photo of the pope kissing Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb of Cairo’s al-Azhar institute, the pre-eminent theological school of Sunni Islam, had been on Benetton’s website all day but was pulled about an hour after the Vatican’s protest.
Al-Azhar suspended interfaith talks with the Vatican earlier this year after Benedict called for greater protections for Egypt’s minority Christians.
The campaign’s fake photos feature a half-dozen purported political nemeses in lip-locked embraces, including
- President Barack Obama and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Benetton said the photos of political and religious leaders kissing were “symbolic images of reconciliation – with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation – to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation.”
Benetton’s shock-ad approach is almost a cliché as it has become part of the company’s brand.
The Washington Post reports the company’s sales have been lagging and speculates that the ad might just be a way of jolting consumers into remembering the Benetton name.
Benetton has previously used images of inmates on death-row and people dying of AIDS as part of its advertising strategy.
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