{"id":142335,"date":"2011-11-17T13:02:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T09:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=142335"},"modified":"2011-11-17T13:02:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T09:02:05","slug":"benetton-pulls-ad-showing-pope-kissing-an-imam-after-outrage-from-vatican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/11\/17\/benetton-pulls-ad-showing-pope-kissing-an-imam-after-outrage-from-vatican.html","title":{"rendered":"Benetton Pulls Ad Showing Pope Kissing an Imam After Outrage from Vatican"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italian clothes company Benetton backed down and pulled a photo montage showing the Pope kissing a leading imam from its new global ad campaign on Wednesday after the Vatican issued a stern condemnation, the National Post<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

The company, which is no stranger to controversy over its advertising campaigns, said it was \u201csorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement came shortly after the Vatican expressed \u201cthe firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benetton\u2019s poster showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips Egypt\u2019s Ahmed el Tayyeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo and a leading voice in Sunni Islam.<\/p>\n

It launched Wednesday a new global advertising campaign called UNHATE that contained a series of photo montages of political and religious leaders kissing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The defended the campaign, saying its purpose \u201cwas solely to battle the culture of hate in all its forms\u201d.<\/p>\n

There were other shock pictures showing US President Barack Obama kissing Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in one picture and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in another.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One picture showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smooching Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. In another, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is depicted kissing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A picture of Silvio Berlusconi kissing Merkel was pulled at the last minute after the jovial billionaire submitted his resignation last week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Vatican strongly criticized the Benedict ad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must express the firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and exploited in a publicity campaign with commercial ends,\u201d Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows a grave lack of respect for the Pope, an offence to the feelings of believers, a clear demonstration of how publicity can violate the basic rules of respect for people by attracting attention with provocation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Vatican was examining what steps to take \u201cto guarantee a fair defense of respect for the image of the Holy Father\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The posters appeared in Benetton clothing stores across the globe as well as in newspapers, magazines and on Internet websites.<\/p>\n

The passionate embrace between the Pope and the imam was briefly shown on a banner held up near Rome\u2019s landmark Castel Sant\u2019Angelo castle not far from the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Benetton deputy chief Alessandro Benetton said earlier in a statement that the ads were \u201cconstructive provocation\u201d intended \u201cto give widespread visibility to an ideal notion of tolerance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Benetton \u201cchooses social issues and actively promotes humanitarian causes that could not otherwise have been communicated on a global scale\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

But Luca Borgomeo, head of the Association of Italian Catholic Television Viewers, called for the ad to be removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it possible Benetton could not come up with anything better?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The company, which became famous in the 1990s with a series of shocking ads, said it was also setting up a foundation to promote international tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central theme is the kiss, the most universal symbol of love, between world political and religious leaders,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benetton\u2019s poster showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips Egypt\u2019s Ahmed el Tayyeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo and a leading voice in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34723,34716,34725,34437,34724,29008,27247],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}