Ban Christmas ads if you don’t like religion, Church tells cinemas

Cinemas should ban all Christmas adverts after refusing to screen a commercial featuring the Lord's Prayer because of its religious content, the Church of England has said.

The Church is threatening to take legal action against Digital Cinema Media (DCM), which handles adverts for cinema giants Odeon, Vue and Cineworld, after it barred an advert featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury encouraging prayer.

DCM told the Church the advert risked ‘‘upsetting or offending audiences’’ and pointed to its policy document barring commercials that advertised ‘‘any religion, faith or equivalent systems of belief’’ or ‘‘any part’’ of any such religion or faith.

Rev Arun Arora, the Church of England’s director of communications, told the Telegraph: ‘‘If they want to be consistent on not carrying any ads that have any connection with religious belief, I’d like them to cancel all ads linked to Christmas as a Christian festival.

‘‘If they’d like to apply it consistently, ban every ad that mentions Christmas.’’

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:38:48 GMT | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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