This morning as I viewed my various social media platforms I came across a number voicing outrage at the above advert being ‘banned’ from three cinema chains as it may be ‘offensive’. The advert, which forms part of a #JustPray campaign run by the Church of England, includes a number of people saying lines from the prayer. I did a bit of digging, including a read of the various articles in relation to the advert that you can read at the links below.
Cinema chains refuse to show advert featuring Lord’s Prayer
Lord’s Prayer cinema ad snub ‘bewilders’ Church of England
and the policy of the advertising agency DCM
The important lines in the document are as follows.
2. Required Standards
2.1 To be approved, an Advertisement must
2.1.3 not in the reasonable opinion of DCM constitute Political or Religious Advertising; and…
purposes of clause 2.1.3 above, Political or Religious Advertising political advertising for the purposes of section 321 of the Communications Act 2003; or advertising which wholly or partly advertises any religion, faith or equivalent systems of belief (including any absence of belief) or any part of any religion, faith or such equivalent systems of belief.
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After I had looked at these I came to the following;
Did the Church of England ask before going ahead?
The policy seems clear to me, it says no religious advertising. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think an advert reciting a prayer and funded by the CofE may fall under that category. Advertising agencies always have policies, from your local newspaper to the cinema. They are there to prevent extremes but in so doing prevent all kinds of other things. Surely they asked the question of the largest Cinema advertising agency before going ahead or did they just assume because it was them it would be ok.
If they asked first we need to know why DCM changed their mind. If they didn’t ask you have to ask why they didn’t at least find out what would and wouldn’t be excluded under the policy terms so they didn’t fall foul of it.
Britain First at the cinema
Imagine sitting down to watch the latest instalment of the Bond series. You have your popcorn ready for the next few hours ahead, the lights dim and adverts begin. It’s nearly time. Then in-between the usual car advert or sports drink offering you are treated to Britain First’s latest advertising campaign. A full 30 seconds of takeourcountryback hashtags and images of injured animals, poppy sellers and WW2 veterans.
Or worse…
The latest ISIS propaganda advert encouraging you to join the fight.
I’m pretty sure none of us would want to see this before watching a film and it is probably why the policy exists.
Maybe this was the plan
Could this be a genius advertising campaign cooked up by those in the media department of the CofE. Lets make an advert that gets banned for being offensive and therefore create a social media storm. It’s possible. If it hadn’t been banned I wouldn’t know about till I watched Star Wars and I wouldn’t be writing this.
So, is it a war against freedom of speech? no – if it had been Britain First, ISIS, The Humanist Society or The Green Party they would all have had their adverts ‘banned’ as they may be ‘offensive’ because they all fall foul of the policy.
Is it a further sign of the persecution of Christians? no – because of the above and because we live in a country where we can freely gather and worship without the fear of imprisonment or death.
Could it be a case of bad planning, lack of communication or a wrongly placed assumption that policies only apply in certain cases. Maybe.
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