WyBlog

Hyundai and ABC Sports mock Catholics during the World Cup

At mass this morning Monsignor Desmond called our attention to an appalling ad he saw while watching the World Cup yesterday. Hyundai chose to mock the Blessed Sacrament in a misguided attempt to sell a few more of their crappy cars. And nobody at ABC Sports thought it was in poor taste for them to do so.

Latin chant? A processional in which the Holy Eucharist is replaced by a soccer ball? A stained glass window in a Church adorned with another soccer ball? Pizza communion, and the priest kicks the ball?

The imagery is blasphemous and patently insulting to any devout Catholic. Hyundai's sacrilege has to be intentional. There is too much Catholic ritual incorporated, and mocked, for this to be happenstance.

You can bet your bottom dollar they wouldn't pull a stunt like this with Islam!

Boycott Hyundai (not hard for most of us). And shame on ABC for allowing such an offensive advertisement to air in the first place. Is Catholic bashing OK with ABC? Monsignor Desmond said he tried calling them (ABC) several times yesterday; no one answered the phone. Not surprising, they're the media and they'll tell us what's offensive and what isn't.

Let's give these bozos a piece of our mind.

Contact Hyundai

Contact ABC Sports (ESPN)

UPDATE 14 Jun 2010 19:40:
Hyundai has pulled the ad.

Pundette emailed me to share the good news that our complaints had an effect. Hyundai pulled the ad. Their response is wishy-washy but they did take our concerns seriously.

You can read Hyundai's response at Potluck.

ABC and ESPN however still don't get it. They also responded, but defended the ad!

This is a product category that has received an acceptance in television, and the specific spot cleared ESPN's advertisement standard review. We recognize that not all our viewers will view these ads as appropriate but as a national network with broad appeal, our standards recognize the widely divergent tastes of our national viewers and advertisers.

So apparently ESPN chooses to appeal to the "widely divergent tastes" of anti-Catholic bigots. Lovely.

The Jets are on Monday Night Football three times in the upcoming season. I'll listen on the radio. ESPN will never again be viewed in my house.

Posted at 11:01 by Chris Wysocki   [/media]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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