ITALY: Cell Phone Ad Riles Catholics

Some Italians Catholics are incensed over the below 10-second cell phone ad in which a man resembling Jesus asks "Dad" for help in escaping a dominatrix.

"It's a sordid concept and incredibly insulting to those who believe in Jesus Christ," said an editorial in Avvenire, a daily newspaper owned by the Catholic Bishops Conference. The newspaper's editor, Marco Tarquinio, said the commercial should never have been made. He suggested that Catholics offended by the ad should stop watching the channel and boycott the company's products. An association of Catholic television viewers, Aiart, made a formal protest over the commercial. "The reference to Christ is explicit and deeply offensive to religious sentiment," it said in a statement.