A New Zealand pizza chain called Hell Pizza has offended Christians with its latest series of adverts. The adverts promote a limited offer of hot cross buns, and the buns are seen complete with an upside-down pentagram inscribed on them, while next to the photo are the words: “For a limited time. A bit like Jesus.”
According to The New Zealand Herald, the Anglican Church through their media officer Lloyd Ashton reacted to the adverts by saying:
“They [Hell Pizza] join a long line of advertising that’s in questionable taste that slings off things that lots of people hold precious.
“It’s disrespectful to what a lot of people hold very dear.”
The Anglican Church received support from an editorial in the same paper which stated that ad is offensive even to non-Christians because it is a “gratuitous, if incoherent, attempt at provocation …”
“[It] is hard not to feel some sympathy for Christians, who are implicitly characterized as humorless if they object to the articles of their faith being ridiculed, or at least exploited, for commercial gains,” read the article.
“The tenets of Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism would not be so abused – quite possibly because the juveniles who design this sort of thing would not know enough about those religions to make fun of them. But the Christian religion is somehow seen as fair game.”
However, the Hell Pizza director Warren Powell reacted impatiently with the protest against his adverts.
“First of all, we’re acknowledging that Jesus Christ may have been on Earth for a limited time,” said Powell. “Again, it’s a debate. I think if people take it that way then they’re being a little bit single-minded.”
Hell Pizza has been in the news on a number of occasions due to their provocative and offensive advertising, the most well known being a commercial in 2008 that depicted Sir Edmund Hillary – a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist – actor Heath Ledger, and Queen Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon of England emerging from their graves to dance to Michael Jackson’s hit song “Thriller.”
This advert was pulled due to the number of complaints received, including from the Hillary family.