Ireland – Ireland’s largest bookmaker, Paddy Power PLC, withdrew a billboard campaign on Wednesday that portrayed Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper table – playing poker and roulette alongside the slogan, "There’s a place for fun and games".
The Dublin-based company was responding to legal threats from Ireland’s Advertising Standards Authority, which reported receiving scores of complaints from the public in this predominantly Roman Catholic country.
At all 89 locations across Dublin, the offending billboards were replaced on Wednesday with new Paddy Power ads that said: "There’s a place for fun and games. Apparently this isn’t it."
Frank Goodman, chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, said Paddy Power had breached its guidelines for taste, decency and religion. "This apparently has caused widespread offence," he said.
The ad provoked laughter and irritation aplenty in this city of 1.3 million.
Dublin Archbishop John Neill, of the Anglican-affiliated Church of Ireland, said it "would be offensive to most Christian people". [Source]
This is silly since after all everybody knows nobody would be willing to play poker with Jesus. Not only does he know when your bluffing he knows what cards you have.
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Ok, let me get this straight: When Burger King sells ice cream cones with a swirling cone design, they withdraw it immediately with profuse apologies because one Muslim complained that the swirl kinda, when turned on it’s side, looked like the word “Allah” but this company which purposefully mocks Our Lord has to be forced to remove the offending ad, and is snarky about it (The new ads says “There’s a place for fun and games. Apparently this isn’t it” and claim people are taking this “too seriously”). Have I got it right?
Yes, you’ve got it right. But you know what? They are taking it too seriously. And that Muslim is too. If there’s one thing all religions should agree upon, it’s that God has a sense of humor. Too many of his followers don’t.
The key words are “at the Last Supper”. This was not an evening of fun and games but rather one of seiousness that ended in agony and torture for Our Lord.
The same firm of bookmakers who ran a book on the Papal election, and got plenty of publicity as a result. I suspect this whole thing was deliberately designed to gain publicity; note that here in Ireland, the Advertising Standards Authority really is an authority, and they can order all ads to be pulled.
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