In preparation for the Pope’s trip to Washington, an effort is being made to get people to use public transportation to Nationals Stadium for the papal Mass. The Metro transit company developed an ad to promote this. The ad features Pope bobble-head doll using the Metro train. The Archdiocese of Washington D.C. complained and the ad was taken down.
The ad had pretty low production values, was farily dopey, and you would have thought they could have dressed the Pope correctly, but, was the ad offensive?
I have my ideas, but you can chime in here.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Ux_96iTq8]
Another version if the YouTube version is removed.
[flv]08_04_09_B16_Metrocard_ad.flv[/flv]
In the meantime, a story from the WaPo says:
"Our concern is that this was a bad bobblehead," said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese. "You had unauthorized merchandise and you had a misdressed pope."
The bobblehead portrayed in the Metro video was wearing a red skull cap, known as a zucchetto, and a red cape. "Popes don’t wear red skull caps" and they don’t wear red capes, only white ones, Gibbs said.
"We think there’s a better way to encourage people to take Metro," Gibbs said. "This is the Holy Father, and I think a lot of people would not be comfortable with a bobblehead ad."
