Catholic power
As we all know, the Catholic Church is the last whipping boy. There are so many examples, whether subtle or blaring examples of Catholic bashing. A recent example was a commercial created for a Pepsi contest to create a Superbowl commercial. One entry used the context of a church and people coming forward to receive Holy Communion. The priest in the commercial was looking for a creative way to attract people to his church, so, in place of people receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, they received Pepsi and Doritos and their church was filled to overflowing.
I received an eMail inviting me to take part in contacting Pepsi, which I did. Today, I received the following reply from Pepsi.
I want to thank Pepsi for being sensitive to the Catholic Faith. This is a great example of how we can affect our culture. Don’t be afraid to speak up, you can make a difference!
“Thank you for contacting us at PepsiCo to share your sincere thoughts.
We want to reassure you that the commercial you cited was not one conceived and produced by PepsiCo, and it never aired on television. Rather, it was a consumer submission in our web-based Crash the Super Bowl promotion, in which participants can upload their own 30-second spots for Doritos tortilla chips or Pepsi MAX to be considered for broadcast during Super Bowl XLV.
We announced the contest finalists this morning and this consumer submission is not included in that selection. We hope you are further reassured to know that this consumer submission will not be aired during the Super Bowl, nor will it be included in any other Doritos or Pepsi MAX marketing programs in the future.
We apologize if you were upset or offended by this consumer submission, and we will share your feedback with our marketing teams so they can be aware of your concerns.
Thanks again for taking the time to write.
PepsiCo Consumer Relations”
Fr. Jay:
Thank you so much for giving us – who tirelessly defend our Mother the Church – HOPE!
I know that ultimately, Christ has the victory, therefore we as baptized Christians also share the victory.
It’s nice to know we can see some results so that we do not lose heart.
Fr. Jim
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Hi Father Jay,
I want to mention a few things about the commercial submission. There are hints in the content of the commercial that point to this not being specifically Catholic bashing:
1) The minister is referred to as pastor not father.
2) The pastor is wearing a wedding ring.
3) There is a female dressed as clergy giving out “communion”.
4) The pepsi max is being distributed in little cups not a chalice.
I do not like the commercial, but wanted to point out those observations. I believe the creators of this put the actors in roman collars just to cause controversy which would get this spot more publicity.
Thank you,
Jason
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