Provocative organ donation ad banned for insensitivity and ‘making light’ of Jesus’ crucifixion
A provocative ad campaign which features Jesus dying on the cross to promote organ donation has been overruled by the advertising watchdog.
The controversial social advertisement, which featured scenes where soldiers take “selfies” with Jesus while nailed to the cross, was ultimately banned for its “demeaning take” on Christianity, inappropriate humour and “inadequate consideration” given to “how seriously some Australians take their religion”.
Numerous complaints were sent to Ad Standards with the ad being labelled as “extremely offensive” and “disparaging, discrimatory [sic] and denigrates the death of Christ to the level of gutter humour”.
“I have been VILLIFIED AND REPULSED BY THIS SO CALLED COMEDY OF DYING PEOPLE needing organs for transplant. This Advert in no way shows any love or respect to organ Donours and no respect to Organ Recipients whatsoever. The Advert has distressed and put me up for serious ridicule and villification within my community. It has undertones of evil depicting Christians only as not doing enough for the dying [sic],” another complaint posted.
The ad, which was promoting a documentary on organ donation called Dying to Live, was also accused of being “sacrilegious”, “insulting” and horrifying.
In defence of the ad, producers of the Dying to Live team said they acknowledge that “some members of the community” may find the content “insensitive in tone” but the approach was “effective in reach and engaging a large number of people”.
The team claimed that the ad reached half a million people and 90% reacted positively on social media.
“Our intention was not to offend any members of the community, but to highlight the important issue of donation in a way that raises discussion and debate around it nationally and within this key demographic.
“We recognise that the crucification of Jesus Christ is deemed by many to be a sacred event of reverence, however also respect and acknowledge that there exists a range of views in the community around the appropriateness and acceptability of imagery and depictions of the event, both in literal and satirical treatment, from both those of the Christian faith and those who are not.
“We do not personally believe the short trivialises the Christian faith, but that it highlights the positive message within it of Jesus’ act of giving life, and that with this exists a strong parallel to that effect of the important message we are promoting around donation,” the Dying to Live team explained.
Despite its response, the Ad Standards board said the “demeaning” take on an important Christian belief vilified Christians and their religion.
The ad watchdog said the advertiser didn’t give enough consideration into how seriously some Australians take their religious views and there wasn’t enough thought given to the level of offence Jesus nailed to the cross taking selfies would cause.
The scene which shows Jesus taking a ‘selfie’
“The depiction of Jesus ignores, or makes light, of the suffering of Jesus in being nailed to the cross, and that Jesus died as a result of the crucifixion.
“In particular the majority of the panel noted the depiction of taking ‘selfies’ with Jesus in conjunction with the phrase ‘nailed it’ and considered the reference to ‘stretch that little finger’ to be making light of the physical limitation of having his hands nailed to the cross.”
Ad Standards upheld the complaints and banned the ad, deeming it to be offensive and cause people to get upset by the images and humour used.
The producers of Dying to Love apologised for any offence the ad may have caused, saying it was never the “intention”.
“We wanted to reach a new audience by creating a light-hearted and well-meaning film to educate about an incredibly important topic of which many Australians are currently misinformed.”
The ad will no longer be promoted on Dying to Live’s social channels.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Why not test the ad and provide evidence on how acceptable it is to Christians and non-Christians? I think it’s a great message.
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The crazies won.
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Made me laugh and then I went to the organ doner site and signed up so I’m obviously the target audience. Clever work doing something to be banned so it brought my attention to it. Mission accomplished! Bravo!
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What a croc. Friggin nanny state
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I’m not at all religious…and am not offended at the Life of Brian, but this is just a shocker. Too long, boring, includes administration, not funny and makes light of a pretty serious decision…for a set of serious circumstances. Sometimes creatives need a reality check…and clients need to take responsibility for poor judgement. This has not been banned based on religious insensitivity…its just sh#te!
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Yes its disgusting. I would much prefer to watch “Life of Brian” to get some real content.
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So baldy done, so insulting. If they really wanted to involve Jesus (such a cheap tactic anyways) to get the message across…
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he comes out of the tomb…
Jesus: ‘mate, you didn’t tick the donate organs box’ – it goes from there.
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A bit akward in execution, but I enjoyed the humour and Australian accents. I signed up, so it worked for me.
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Its hard to believe in god when things are going great guns and life’s good.
But when your on your death bed, and thinking about the possibilities of life after death, its hard ‘NOT’ to believe that god exists, and thats why I think this ‘turd’ of a piece of an execution wont work.
Good luck, youll need it.
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Yes lets respect the culture of everyone. Its important.
Unless you are religious.
What a hypocritical culture we have.
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Typo! Obviously meant to ‘donor’, we’re not talking kebabs.
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Too soon?
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“The closer to death you are, the more you want to believe in life after death and therefore a god”
The strength of a belief has no effect on the how true it is.
“It’s not funny, It’s making fun of a very serious situation”
Nah, it’s pretty funny. Precisely because it’s making light of a situation people take very seriously.
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Well done Ad Standsrds Board. Thank you for giving this excellent and another run anf some more earned media. Appreciate your efforts.
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Not funny & disrepectful to the Christian religion.
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I cant believe Jeebus won this round!!!!
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There is no way this adv. was created without knowing it will offend. I can only assume the agency and client wanted to offend so that they could get the free media that would come from social outrage.
It is a tacky adv. that will just dd to our hate mill click-bait media culture. Now if they really wanted to get some media traction, replace Jesus with Mohammad during the Haj or a Jew getting into a rail waggon; it is hanukkah! The coverage would be totes amze!
Maybe some farmers chatting to Budhha before his transcendence . . . it is not like he will be coming back into the same body. Better still, that Hindu god, Ganasha! After all he was the original organ donner!! Jesus is just low hanging fruit.
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To all those who are negative about the ad, I just hope you are never in need of a organ donation when yours fail. Would you knock back a life saving operation if the donation is a result of the ad? Any ad be it good or bad to bring attention to such a vital need is essential.
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ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
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I always wonder about that approach “We deliberately tried to offend people because that gets attention.” Which invites the obvious reply “So you are incapable of getting attention without being offensive. How then is an add professional any different from a teenage dropkick?”
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Organ donation is a serious business, and a profoundly kind and spiritual human action. Christianity, whether one is a believer or not, is the foundation religion of our western society, and is practiced buy millions of individuals world wide.
When the meat eaters promoted Aussie lamb, utilising the characterisation of various deities and religious figures, there was an outcry, yet here the use of a characterisation of Christ, in what turned out to be a mediocre production of (so called) comedy, there are those who are willing to sing its praises.
I have absolutely no organised religious affiliation, yet I am very pleased to see this rather pathetic attempt at so called humour go.
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