Vatican criticizes Benetton picture of Pope kissing world leader [Guardian]

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"**Italian clothing company Benetton has withdrawn a publicity shot of the pope kissing a Muslim religious leader following a Vatican backlash.

A digitally manipulated picture showed Benedict XVI locking lips with Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, as part of an advertising campaign that launched on Wednesday and featured unlikely combinations of religious and political figureheads kissing**".
(Guardian: guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/17/vatican-criticises-benetton-pope-kissing )
 
Who wouldn’t be a bit offended at a public digitally manipulated poster of them kissing someone they obviously didn’t?
 
I had a look at the picture.
That really is disgraceful, what were Benetton thinking?:confused:
 
The Church isn’t taking this one with just an apology and retraction of the ad. one, no less!), perhaps to ensure that the company never, ever considers using digital manuipulation with any of the clergy again.*Italian *

I think it’s an important point to pursue. The Church is all about forgiveness, yes. But the company is not a person and has no morality (literally) as companies behave like entities but are not alive. Digital manipulation is not always as obviously false as this one, yet the rendering is well-done and could be interpreted as truthful to others.

Benetton should stick to messages that sell their clothes. They’ve been doing this stuff since I was in college, and they’re still not really good at doing anything with their messages other than inciting or confusing many people.
 
Lee_Aaronaldo said:
Pray is the powerful weapon! Shall we?
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Prayer doesn’t work. But it’s good that the Vatican is threatening legal action. Businesses have to understand that there are limits to how they promote things and it isn’t a “free-for-all”.
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
Prayer doesn’t work. But it’s good that the Vatican is threatening legal action. Businesses have to understand that there are limits to how they promote things and it isn’t a “free-for-all”.
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“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
 
Wow. This doesn’t usually happen, but my jaw dropped in disbelief that any company would be idiotic enough to do this. By the way, this wasn’t the only photo they’ve manipulated, they have an entire campaign with a variety of world leaders “kissing” one another.

I sent an email to their investor realations voicing my disapproval of the whole campaign. It’s disingenuous. Let their investors know they’ve crossed a line with the ENTIRE campaign!

Their address: ir@benetton.it
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
Prayer doesn’t work. But it’s good that the Vatican is threatening legal action. Businesses have to understand that there are limits to how they promote things and it isn’t a “free-for-all”.
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That’s getting pretty close to a blasphemy. Prayer does work, and is the best thing we can do. We must accompany prayer with action, but saying that prayer doesn’t work unites your voice with the athiests that say two hands doing is better than a million praying.

Prayer does work.
 
Not_Sure said:
That’s getting pretty close to a blasphemy. Prayer does work, and is the best thing we can do. We must accompany prayer with action, but saying that prayer doesn’t work unites your voice with the athiests that say two hands doing is better than a million praying.

Prayer does work.
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Ummm…the individual who posted this describes him/herself as atheist, so probably isn’t too concerned about blasphemy. Just an observation. 😉
 
That picture is disgusting. It seems that this company made it so as to make the Pope and this other person look like a gay couple kissing and that most certainly is not the truth. I am glad that the Vatican criticized the picture and I hope that company issues a sincere apology for this sickening move of theirs.
 
I dont’ have an issue with this personally. It’s just a campaign to promote love and world peace.
 
This raises some interesting questions. The person defamed by the photograph is the Pope. Does this mean he submits himself to a court of general jurisdiction in Italy like any other litigant? If so, will the Benneton lawyers be able to take his deposition and have him answer interrogatories? Will he testify at trial and be subject to cross examination? particularly on the question of damages? There are a lot of aggressive lawyers in the world who would give their eyeteeth to be able to examine the Pope under oath in an oral deposition. How much has the Pope been damaged by this silly, photoshopped picture? If I were a Vatican lawyer I’d think long and hard before wading into these waters. There have always been rude caricatures of leaders. I don’t think the Pope or anyone else has been injured by this type of idiocy.
 
Serap said:
I dont’ have an issue with this personally. It’s just a campaign to promote love and world peace.
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This whole idea is stupid, its based on a caricature of the Holy Father with the idea that he is cold, and unbending with regard to non-Christian religions.

No one in the Christian world has called for Muslim dialogue more than Pope Benedict XVI.
 
Serap said:
I dont’ have an issue with this personally. It’s just a campaign to promote love and world peace.
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Yeah, just one that happens to employ homosexual imagery. No hidden agenda there.

I hope the Holy Father sues the swine and donates the proceeds to their marriage prep programs worldwide.
 
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