Christ the Redeemer balloon causes people to go nuts

[fireheart17]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/o...-1226962200715

http://www.news.com.au/video/id-9qNH...over-Melbourne

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/out...-1226949154500

OK, so a gambling agency decided that the best way to get people interested in gambling....was to use a replica balloon of Christ the Redeemer (that giant statue in Brazil) to promote the World Cup. The top story is of one columnist who is complaining that the agency wouldn't have the guts to run a similar campaign around Islam because it's "OK" to bash Christianity, but not to bash Muslims.

My point on that is that the agency wouldn't run an ad campaign around Islam (at this point in time) for four main reasons:

1) Christianity is the dominant religion in Brazil (specifically Catholicism), therefore it wouldn't be relevant.

2) gambling is forbidden in Islam. (Christian denominations vary on the position of gambling)

3) It would be in EXTREMELY poor taste at the moment to do so due to the situation occuring in Iraq. (Hey, there's a potential coup going on in Iraq, let's poke fun at it by making an ad!)

4) The busybody housewives who often complain to the ad standards bureau for the most inane reasons are likely to latch onto this and complain nonstop until the ad gets yanked ANYWAY for promoting Islam or terrorism depending on your view.


Now in regards to #4, I know that there are legitimate complaints and reasons for people to complain to the ad standards bureau. Some of the complaints I've seen are legitimate and were upheld (For example, a kids toy catalogue had a toy car where kids could torture and shock the driver. That was complained about, the catalogue was yanked and the product itself was discontinued), but then you get the few that are legitimate and dismissed (for example, there was an ad for a peri-peri chicken joint that had a pole dancing woman and was aired in a family-friendly timeslot. The end result was the ad was moved to late-night television by the company itself, but wasn't yanked.) and then you get the ones that are stupid. #4 refers to the stupid ones. (One example I came across was the person who complained about an ad for something, but the complaint was that the cot bars in the ad were too wide...and the cot wasn't even the focal point of the ad!)

Thoughts? Link #1 is the point of my post, Links 2 and 3 explain the situation (Link 2 is video)

[Hyena Dandy]

4) The Christ the Redeemer statue is not a holy site to Christianity.

Christ is holy to Christianity. Not all images of him are. To use Christ to promote gambling would make me pretty upset. It would strike me as anti-Christian, because I want my faith and my money separate.

But, this isn't "Jesus." It's a famous representation OF Jesus. It's not being used to refer to Christ or Christianity. It's being used as a reference point of Brazil. It's an iconic thing that people will see and think "Oh, Brazilian." To use the Christ the Redeemer statue like that is no more about Christianity than Carhenge is about druidism.

[HYHYBT]

Like the Statue of Liberty, which is meant to represent "Liberty Enlightening the World," but also is used apart from that to signify New York or the whole US, and frequently appears in advertising.