The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an offensive advert featuring a digitally altered image of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.
The image depicted Jesus with his arm around a bikini-clad woman, holding a champagne bottle and celebrating a gambling win. The advert was placed by Sporting Index Ltd in the City AM newspaper.
The ASA received 25 complaints - including one from the Evangelical Alliance - and found the advert “was likely to cause offence to a significant number of Christians, regardless of this humorous intention... because it depicted the person of Jesus in a context at odds with commonly held beliefs about the nature of Christ”.
The ASA ordered Sporting Index Ltd not to use the image again and not to use ads in future which link gambling to sex.
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Evangelical Alliance news release >
ASA adjudication >
