Advertising restrictions during B16's visit to Poland:
Poland's TVP public broadcaster is to ban television adverts containing erotic and violent scenes during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the country next month, officials said. . .
"For other programmes linked to the pope's visit, we will eliminate all advertisements that could hurt religious feelings, particularly those containing violent or erotic scenes."
Badziak also said TVP would avoid transmitting adverts for products such as beer and intimate hygiene items during the pope's visit.
I know nothing about Polish TV. The story makes reference to the public broadcaster. Does Polish have only one, whereas we have four? Could be. What about cable? Does Poland have a decent cable TV system? I have no idea.
But assuming this decision by the Polish broadcaster is effective, I suspect we'll hear cries of censorship, if not from Polish advertisers, then from the EU, who can hardly be happy that the fundamental human right to be exposed to erotica unsuspectingly is sapped by this theocratic-type decision. What's next? All women must wear habits? It's a short step from squelching erotica in advertising to sending Playboy subscribers to hard-core concentration camps. We all know that.
Other: I'm glad a similar decision wasn't made when JPII visited the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s. Back then, the only good commercials were beer commercials. It took the rest of the ad industry more than a decade to start catching up with beer's cutting-edge venture into humorous commercials.
I remember attending church with my older brother and wife back in the 1970's. Neither drank hardly at all and both expressed moral concerns about alcohol. After church, there was a petition drive against beer commercials. My sister-in-law signed it and asked my brother if he was going to sign it, somewhat surprised that he hadn't. He kinda shrugged and said, "Those are the best commercials on TV." I was only 12 at the time, but I appreciated it.
