Ice cream 'seductive' priests ad banned

An ice cream company has been banned from using an ad showing two priests about to kiss just a month after being ordered to pull a campaign featuring a pregnant nun.

The latest Antonio Federici ad, which appeared in Look magazine, showed two priests in full robes eating from a tub of ice cream "in a seductive pose as if they were about to kiss passionately", the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.

Accompanying text read: "We Believe in Salivation".

Defending the ad, the company said it did not mock Catholicism but "reflected the grave troubles they considered affected the Catholic Church".

Antonio Federici was a Catholic company, but would continue to produce advertising that challenged the Catholic Church while it believed it remained troubled, it added.

Upholding six complaints about the ad, the ASA noted the ad used the text "We Believe in Salivation" in reference to the taste of the product and to the image of the priests.

The ASA said: "We considered the portrayal of the two priests in a sexualised manner was likely to be interpreted as mocking the beliefs of Roman Catholics and was therefore likely to cause serious offence to some readers."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again and told Antonio Federici to ensure future ads were not likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Last month, the ASA banned another of the company's adverts showing a heavily pregnant nun standing in a church holding a tub of ice cream and a spoon, with text stating "Immaculately conceived" and "Ice cream is our religion".

The ASA said the ad, which appeared in The Lady and Grazia magazines, was "making a mockery" of the beliefs of Roman Catholics.