'Seductive' priests ice cream ad banned

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London: Just a month after being ordered to pull a campaign featuring a pregnant nun, an ice cream firm has been barred from using an ad featuring two priests about to kiss.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that the latest Antonio Federici ad, which appeared in Look magazine, showed two priests in full robes eating from a tub of ice cream 'in a seductive pose as if they were about to kiss passionately'.

Accompanying text read: "We Believe in Salivation,” reports the Independent.

The company, however, defended the ad, saying it did not mock Catholicism but 'reflected the grave troubles they considered affected the Catholic Church'.

Antonio Federici was a Catholic company, but would continue to produce advertising that challenged the Catholic Church while it believed it remained troubled, it added.

Upholding six complaints about the ad, the ASA noted the ad used the text 'We Believe in Salivation' in reference to the taste of the product and to the image of the priests.

The ASA said: "We considered the portrayal of the two priests in a sexualised manner was likely to be interpreted as mocking the beliefs of Roman Catholics and was therefore likely to cause serious offence to some readers."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again and told Antonio Federici to ensure future ads were not likely to cause serious or widespread offence.