Bobblehead Pope Video Yanked

D.C. Subway Agency Drops Promotional Ad After Catholic Objection To "Misdressed" Pontiff

(CBS/AP)  The transportation agency for the nation's capital has pulled a promotional video from YouTube after the Archdiocese of Washington complained about the star: a Pope Benedict XVI bobblehead doll.

The video aimed to encourage people to take Metro to next week's papal Mass at Nationals Park. But Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said many people would not have been comfortable with it.

"Our concern is that this was a bad bobblehead," Gibbs told the Washington Post. "You had unauthorized merchandise, and you had a misdressed pope."

The video shows the bobblehead riding a Metro train and buying a special one-day pass. Metro's media relations director, Lisa Farbstein, dreamed up the video and says no offense was intended.

[bobnjersey]

[Kind of like how you sicko atheists can''''t stand when your hero Charlie Darwin is challenged right?
Talk about whiners...you atheists take home first prize in that category.]
[Posted by libagenda at 10:14 PM : Apr 09, 2008]

who said anything about darwin? or anything about atheists? or that it was a contest w/ a prize?

[keithle1]

Title of a Queen song: "Who Wants To Live Forever."

[keithle1]

You don''t want to get the almighty Catholics upset. Oh no. The guardians of morality & all that is good.
Looking for stuff to get upset about. Like a lot of Christians.

Who cares about the Pope. Just a man. Some old geezer. You want I should bow & kiss his ring?

[catholic11]

I thought the ad was pretty hilarious... particularly liked the "mass pass". It''s in the same vein as the "popener", a popular souvenir from the Vatican. So I think the Archdioceses'' response was quite an over-reaction.
What''s more surprising though (or maybe not) is the amount of hate aimed at religion in general, and the Catholic Church in particular. It seems like the last fashionable prejudice is alive and well.
For all you self-righteous atheist who think the religious mind is "closed, sick, bitter and twisted", would you say this applies to Ghandi? MLK? the Dalai Lama? Mother Theresa? JP2? And these are simply some examples from the last century of people who made tremendous contributions to humanity.
I would think "twisted" would more likely apply to the atheist/cultist regimes of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler.
Better get your history straight, and tone down on the hate... isn''t it tolerance you people value above all else?

[voltaire333]

Lucy Ferr was credited with the seizing the opportunity to secure market share of pope puppets.
Posted by caliengineer at 08:22 PM : Apr 09, 2008

Not so fast, Bill Zeebub is seeking an injunction against Lucy based on her satanic business practices! No one ever said there was any honor among thieves!

[caliengineer]

Lucy Ferr was credited with the seizing the opportunity to secure market share of pope puppets.

[caliengineer]

breaking news: HQ of Catholicism, Inc. (ticker: CAI) strikes blow at knock-off merchandise. Only official merchandisers can market pope products.

Distracting attention from their true goal of securing profits, the archdicese said, "They dressed the pope wrong." Lucy Ferr, the famed spinmeister who repackaged paganism to invent the catholic (latin for universal) church.

The price of CAI shot up more than 10 points on the news. This is the biggest jump since the Vatican secured exclusive rights to market religion in Argentina in exchange for providing firearms to the internationally embargoed nation.

[voltaire333]

If I give the Archdiocese a 20 dollar bill, will they finally go out and buy themselves a sense of humor?
Posted by rafalweb at 04:09 PM : Apr 09, 2008

The Pope will do anything for a buck.

[voltaire333]

In a different time and place, the Archdiocese would have demanded the execution of all those responsible. However, censorship is the only thing it can get away with today, thank god.

[veteran72]

I liked the "Popes in the Pizza" bit by Father Guido Sarducci better, although a young Pope Hitler Youth
bobble head stomping some Jewish shop keepers would have been acceptable,.....and historically accurate...
the Nazi Scumbag....

[taylor2124]

The Catholic Church is Club Med compared to Islam.
Islam: killing and raping and oppressing for a thousand years.
www.thereligionofpeace.com

[irliberal]

Actually, it''s a tragic, evil organization. Ask any altar boy.

[inventagod]

The Cathoholic Church is a joke.

[tomanyt]

The saddest part of this story is that the ad agency actually pulled the commercial.

[knndykills]

Religion=Stupid Time to eliminate all religions in this country. Also eliminate the conservatives who want to shove it down our throats

[ann3332]

one comment its stupid

[irliberal]

I hope the pope prays for your soul IRlib

Posted by GWno1 at 02:46 PM :

Honey, if I go to Hell for not worshipping the pope then I''m going to have a lot of company and I''ll be just fine with that. You pathetic dogmatic cow.

[rafalweb]

If I give the Archdiocese a 20 dollar bill, will they finally go out and buy themselves a sense of humor?

[ristan-2009]

I would say most of the ad is more strange than silly, and more irreverent than offensive. However, parodying the sung prayers of the Catholic liturgy (in the beginning of the ad) does fall into the offensive category. A comparably offensive parody (or any parody for that matter) of Jewish or Muslim prayer would _never_ be allowed to see the light of day in any TV ad. And for that glaring bit of insensitivity, it wouuld seem that the only true bobblehead in this story is DC metro''s "media relations director" Lisa Farbstein.

[sgtrds]

Good grief, The bobblehead Pope is a great idea. He is a real life bobblehead. But I want a bobblehead Jesus. Where do you get these?

Posted by yongamerica at 11:42 AM : Apr 09, 2008

I don''t know, but there''s a place in Santa Monica that sells Jesus bandaids.