NEWS

Pregnant nun ad banned
Padraig Reidy: Pregnant nun ice-cream ad banned
15 Sep 10

pregnant nun ad
I’ll have to admit: I don’t get the “pregnant nun” ad for Antonio Federici ice cream, which has been banned cos Catholics might get upset. I’m not sure what they’re getting at. I mean, there’s “buy our ice-cream. It’s nice”, obviously. But “immaculately conceived”? That might, might make sense if it was magical, no calories ice-cream, without “sin”. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Is it that nuns get pregnant from ice-cream? That the ice-cream’s made by the Virgin Mary? What’s the joke?

The best part of the story is this:

The firm said it also wished to “comment on and question, using satire and gentle humour, the relevance and hypocrisy of religion and the attitudes of the church to social issues”.

What? Really? Has the Vatican been especially hypocritical about ice cream lately? and is it the purpose of advertising for the Antonio Federici ice cream company to highlight the Vatican’s hypocrisy? Shouldn’t the main aim of advertising for the Antonio Federici ice cream company be to sell Antonio Federici ice cream?

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Stewart Lee:

Anyway, now the ad’s been banned and I’ve heard of Antonio Federici ice cream. And I’m writing about it.

Job done.

By Padraig Reidy

Padraig Reidy is the editor of Little Atoms and a columnist for Index on Censorship. He has also written for The Observer, The Guardian, and The Irish Times.

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