We must recognize that religion has always been one of the veterans in terms of advertising is concerned. However, one thing is to advertise one religion and another to use religion as a way to advertise a service or product.
One of the most used advertising tools that has better results is the use of famous icons to sell. That is why not take long to think of religious icons, taking into account the quantities of these remain followers. More or less this is the case of 4U British mobile operator, which used a cartoon showing Jesus with his thumb raised and exaggerated wink, used to sell.
The regulator of British advertising banned this advert as "irreverent" "While advert intended to be light and humorous, we considered that the portrayal of Jesus with his thumb up and winking, accompanied by the slogan 'miraculous reduction' in Easter period seemed to ridicule one of the fundamental Christian beliefs"said the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
4U operator apologized to more than 80 people who had filed a complaint and argued that they never intended disrespect to Catholics, but instead they wanted to project "an image light, positive and contemporary" of the religion.
However, this is not the first time that an advertisement of this kind is banned. The Brazilian Catholic Church asked to remove a poster which that used the image of the statue in Rio de Janeiro to incite infidelity. They asked to remove a billboard placed in Rio de Janeiro by a sex website that used the image of Christ the Redeemer statue to incite infidelity.
The ad, located on a main street in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca, displayed a photograph of the iconic statue next to the slogan "Have an affair now! And be sorry later", as local media reported.
Below a video compilation of ads with religion as a basis.
