A commercial depicting nuns enjoying french fries instead of communion wafers has outraged Catholics in Italy.
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A potato chips commercial featuring nuns receiving crispy snacks instead of communion wafers during communion has been labeled as ‘blasphemy’ by a Catholic group in Italy. The TV ad by the brand Amica Chips sparked strong reactions by showing a snack being used to replace the traditional wafer served during the Catholic mass.
In the 30-second ad, the mother superior swaps the traditional wafers with french fries before the mass, surprising the other nuns and the priest. The commercial starts with a group of novices entering a church to receive communion to the sound of ‘Ave Maria’; when one of the girls approaches the altar and receives the french fry, she seems surprised by the snack.
According to CNN and the Catholic News Agency (CNA), the Italian Association of Radio and Television Listeners (AIART) said the Amica Chips commercial “offends the religious sensitivity of millions of practicing Catholics by trivializing the comparison between the french fry and the consecrated object”.
“The commercial shows a lack of respect and creativity,” said Giovanni Baggio, president of the association, in a statement obtained by The Guardian. “It is a sign of the inability to do marketing without resorting to symbols that have nothing to do with consumption and crispy food.”
In response to negative public reaction, the Italian advertising standards regulator, IAP, ordered the commercial to be pulled. Amica Chips has a week to appeal this decision, during which time the commercial continues to air, and the order does not apply to online advertising.
According to The Guardian, the marketing company behind the ad, Lorenzo Marini Group, explained that the ad was aimed at younger viewers with “strong British irony” and that the goal was to portray the crispiness of the french fry in an exaggerated and provocative way.
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