Ad playing Doritos for Eucharist yanked from Super Bowl contest

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stjudeprayforus
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Stjudeprayforus

Guest
content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/01/super-bowl-doritos-ad-catholic-offensive/1?csp=34

In 2011, the hot spot is an entry in the annual Pepsi-owned Doritos Crash the Super Bowl ad contest that will never air for being over-the-top offensive to Catholics. It plays the sacrament for snack food.

But the body and blood of Christ are no joke to Catholics who believe they are in Communion with their God when they accept the Eucharist and the wine during Mass.

Hence the uproar among some believers when they saw one of the 5,000+ entries in the annual competition for a slot in the Super Bowl ad line up.

Feed your Flock begins with a Catholic priest at his desk surrounded by bills for the parish, which clearly needs more income in the collection plate (why else show the stack of bills?).

Since it’s his job to offer spiritual food to the flock, he takes it to another level (the pits, I’d say). The video shows the faithful lining up for Communion and getting Doritos (in two flavors, no less) instead of the Eucharist, the sacramental bread which Catholics believe is the body of Christ. And, you guessed it, the sacramental wine, considered to be the blood of Christ, is dished out as Pepsi MAX.

You don’t have to be Catholic to find this irredeemably offensive. Hence, I’m not embedding the video. According to the Mashable Business site,
Code: 
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."
Ya think? How could it have been anything but offensive to the one in four Americans who call themselves Catholic? What’s surprising is that it made it up on the Pepsi site for consideration at all. Were there no standards for submission?

Needless to say, the Pepsico site listing the top 10 finalists does not include Feed your Flock and a representative of the company apologized for any offense.

Here is the video:
wtsp.com/video/default.aspx?menuid=42#/News/Controversial+Commercial%3A+Feed+the+Flock/53132882001/53147622001/739524434001
 
I am glad that it has been removed. Unfortunately, these…err…I’ll stop myself…got all kinds of free publicity
 
hmm, I think the offensive part is that the chips and soda are supposed to increase attendance and fill the collection plate. 🤷

On a side note, when I was a kid I use to pretend that the Old Dutch original chips were hosts, and would play “Mass” with them.
 
They are mixing their “denominations” in this commercial. The clergy appear to be Catholic because of their collars, but the church, inside and outside, does not look Catholic. Even the marquee outside says “Doritos and Pepsi Sunday” which is something Protestant churches have…i.e., certain Sundays are communion Sundays. Also, the “wine” is in separate plastic cups like the Protestants do it.

Regardless, the commercial is offensive. Hard to believe no one involved in the whole process of getting this commercial made, realized it.
 
One in four Americans are Catholic? Didn’t know that.

I think this advert might not even have made it on British television - way too offensive.

Everyone thinks that we’re secular and easy going, but an advert in which two men kissing each other on the cheek (they were portrayed as foreign men who were waiters) was banned after hundreds complained because it was shown before the watershed (before 9pm) when children might see. What’s wrong with two men kissing each other on the cheek? It’s normal practice in Europe without homosexuality being mentioned. Ah well.

But then again, hundreds also complained about a woman on British children’s television and called her to be banned from broadcasting - because she was an amputee and was missing an arm. Children were watching and might ask questions - that was the most common reason. I don’t think Americans would complain about such a thing.
 
LemonAndLime said:
One in four Americans are Catholic? Didn’t know that.

I think this advert might not even have made it on British television - way too offensive.

Everyone thinks that we’re secular and easy going, but an advert in which two men kissing each other on the cheek (they were portrayed as foreign men who were waiters) was banned after hundreds complained because it was shown before the watershed (before 9pm) when children might see. What’s wrong with two men kissing each other on the cheek? It’s normal practice in Europe without homosexuality being mentioned. Ah well.

But then again, hundreds also complained about a woman on British children’s television and called her to be banned from broadcasting - because she was an amputee and was missing an arm. Children were watching and might ask questions - that was the most common reason. I don’t think Americans would complain about such a thing.
Click to expand...
Indeed, here it is almost a requirement that they have the appropriate “diversity” on programing for children. (Sesame Street used to, and still has people on the show of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and those with various disabilities, usually a wheelchair and one blind character).

In the US indecent material cannot be shown after 10pm.
 
I signed a petition to have that horrendous ad removed—and thank God it was!
 
I saw a “making of” video for it on youtube, and yeah, it was offensive.

I want to applaud Pepsi for taking it down though. I think it shows a lot that they aren’t one of these uppity companies who would air it anyway because somehow this culture thinks it’s OK to use catholics as universal punching bags.

Pepsi - you made a mistake, we all do. But major kudos to you for owning that mistake and doing what is RIGHT!

I may buy a bag of doritos just for this! (I still won’t watch the Superbowl though! :p)
 
edward_george said:
How thoughtful…
Click to expand...
First of all, this commercial isn’t even about the Catholic faith. The man is a “pastor”, the church isn’t a Catholic one, and the “wine”(Pepsi) is served in tiny cups a la Protestants and their grape juice. There is no implication of the Real Presence and I would argue that in a Protestant church, there would actually be nothing amiss if a pastor were to serve Doritos and Pepsi instead of a loaf of store-bought bread and the Juicy Juice they normally serve.

I think that with genocide, female circumcision, rape, war and the thousands of other atrocities committed on this planet against God and humanity every day, we should save our moral outrage for something other than a tongue-in-cheek Doritos commercial. But then, you can’t solve any of those other things simply by sitting at home and firing off some angry emails like you can with the great Pepsi and Doritos scandal of 2011. It’s tough to find a cause where one can feel morally superior and yet expend almost zero energy to actually affecting any sort of real change. It’s much like the recent Facebook campaign where we were encouraged to change our profile pictures to a cartoon character in order to stop child abuse, which totally worked…no child has been abused since. Making the world a better place, one angry email at a time…
 
Thoughtfulone said:
I think that with genocide, female circumcision, rape, war and the thousands of other atrocities committed on this planet against God and humanity every day, we should save our moral outrage for something other than a tongue-in-cheek Doritos commercial. But then, you can’t solve any of those other things simply by sitting at home and firing off some angry emails like you can with the great Pepsi and Doritos scandal of 2011. It’s tough to find a cause where one can feel morally superior and yet expend almost zero energy to actually affecting any sort of real change. It’s much like the recent Facebook campaign where we were encouraged to change our profile pictures to a cartoon character in order to stop child abuse, which total worked…no child has been abused since. Making the world a better place, one angry email at a time…
Click to expand...
I think it’s important to ask that people be respectful of others’ religion- Catholicism or otherwise. And, it doesn’t mean that we can’t also be outraged against genocide etc…

(I don’t quite get those Facebook things, either…what is going on with those?)
 
I was so happy when I read this was removed. 👍 That was one distasteful, disrespectful video.
 
From what I understand, this ad wasn’t exactly “yanked”. It just was not voted into the top 10, by the public. I have no doubt, that if it was voted by the public to the top 10, it would have aired.
 
jilly4ski said:
Indeed, here it is almost a requirement that they have the appropriate “diversity” on programing for children. (Sesame Street used to, and still has people on the show of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and those with various disabilities, usually a wheelchair and one blind character).

In the US indecent material cannot be shown after 10pm.
Click to expand...
I think we have a similar thing here, but its only for decoration. The majority of TV adverts in the UK feature white women with blonde hair, who are a size 8-10.

It’s sad really. Every single advert I’ve seen that relates to domestic things - cleaners etc, features a blonde woman. APART from when an advert claims that its “so simple a man can do it” OR when its an amazing washing machine with hundreds of functions, so they get a man to advertise it. I assume its because the women they normally have for washing adverts are too stupid to figure it out. :rolleyes: It makes my feminist self scream.

I saw an advert on youtube that was in the superbowl last year - about a man who was really hard-done by by women who were mean to him, but he always got his [insert product/sport] at the end of the day to help him cope. Was so ridiculously sexist I was happy to see there was a response by a satire group in which it was a woman who was - correctly so - repeating facts such as for year of work a woman does, she’ll make several days less worth of pay than a man doing the same job, etc etc.

An advert which is so blatently sexist wouldn’t make it on UK tv. Some have in the past, but get swiftly removed.
 
IMHO, it was meant to be a generic Christian church. It wasn’t a Catholic church in any way other than the black clerical shirt (which other denominations do use as well).
  1. The minister was called “pastor.” Even unchurched idiots know Catholics call their priests “father.” So strike 1 against this being a Catholic church.
  2. The “pastor” is wearing a wedding ring. Once agian, even unchurched idiots know Catholic priests are usually celibate. Strike 2 against this being a Catholic church.
  3. No one is wearing vestments (one side minister is wearing an alb but there’s no vestments), there’s no kneelers in the church, its a protestant wine communion plate/cups, and the outside shot is a stereotypical white protestant church with slogan sign. I have to say: stike 3.
Now, should the commercial be viewed as offensive to Christianity in general? Perhaps, but I do have to say I can’t find anything particularly “catholic” in the commercial that would make me think it was aimed at us…
 
Thoughtfulone said:
There is no implication of the Real Presence and I would argue that in a Protestant church, there would actually be nothing amiss if a pastor were to serve Doritos and Pepsi instead of a loaf of store-bought bread and the Juicy Juice they normally serve.
Click to expand...
Um… this protestant would be pretty surprised if that happened in his church. Or in any church. Of any denomination. Yes I know sometimes we stray from tradition and use an unfermented cup, but it’s still from the fruit of the vine. And bread is still bread.
 
Thoughtfulone said:
First of all, this commercial isn’t even about the Catholic faith. The man is a “pastor”, the church isn’t a Catholic one, and the “wine”(Pepsi) is served in tiny cups a la Protestants and their grape juice. There is no implication of the Real Presence and I would argue that in a Protestant church, there would actually be nothing amiss if a pastor were to serve Doritos and Pepsi instead of a loaf of store-bought bread and the Juicy Juice they normally serve.

I think that with genocide, female circumcision, rape, war and the thousands of other atrocities committed on this planet against God and humanity every day, we should save our moral outrage for something other than a tongue-in-cheek Doritos commercial. But then, you can’t solve any of those other things simply by sitting at home and firing off some angry emails like you can with the great Pepsi and Doritos scandal of 2011. It’s tough to find a cause where one can feel morally superior and yet expend almost zero energy to actually affecting any sort of real change. It’s much like the recent Facebook campaign where we were encouraged to change our profile pictures to a cartoon character in order to stop child abuse, which totally worked…no child has been abused since. Making the world a better place, one angry email at a time…
Click to expand...
To say Catholics do nothing to fight against ethical causes and don’t put any energy into affecting any sort of change is totally off base. I could fill pages with people and organizations of our faith as with other Christian faiths that have done just that. As far as your assumption that there has been no child abuse since some absurd Facebook request to change avatars to cartoon characters is typical of someone who just sits at home expecting results from some feeble Facebook effort, and believes it makes real change. Where are your facts for saying that no child has been abused since this? Get out in the communities and talk to the Catholics and all people who work on a daily basis with the abused; women, children and elderly and tell them that you silly notion worked! Perhaps it brings awareness but it didn’t stop it!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top