A potential Super Bowl ad for Doritos and Pepsi was shelved by its creator after concerns that it mocked Catholicism.
The commercial, entitled "Feed the Flock", was one of thousands of entries in an online contest put on by Pepsi-owned Doritos. In it, a pastor tries to lure worshippers to church with an offer of Doritos and Pepsi. After a mild uproar, the advertisement was pulled from the contest and taken down from YouTube earlier this month.
A television station recorded the ad and posted it online. If it sounds like you may be offended, go ahead and skip it:
It's as unfunny as it is offensive, and that's coming from someone who frequently laments the political correctness that's pervaded our culture.
Michael Lyons, the man who put together the commercial, is a practicing Catholic and told Politics Daily he didn't frame it to be offensive. He says there are subtle hints intended to show that it's not a real church service. (There's a "pastor" wearing a wedding ring, there's no crucifix, altar, blessing or cross, etc.)
According to the Mashable Business site,
The maker of the ad, a Philadelphia firm called Media Wave Productions, however, says that interpretation is way off base....
Dave Williams, president of MediaWave, says he pulled the ad from Pepsi's site and from YouTube. "We felt bad," he says. "Our intention was to win, not to offend."
Isn't that what commercials do though, dance around an issue without ever explicitly stating what it's really about? I think I was eight years old when I figured out what all the innuendos in beer commercials meant. This ad is about a priest trying to get money for his church by offering Doritos and Pepsi instead of Communion. You don't need to live at the Vatican to figure out that people were going to be offended by that.
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