The commercial by Amica Chips features doe-eyed young nuns inside a convent delighting that their communion wafer, is actually a potato chip.
A motherly figure watches as the nuns chuckle. Later, it is revealed that it was she who replaced the communion with potato chips in the tabernacle—a container that holds communion wafers.
An Italian Catholic Organisation claims the commercial is “blasphemy” and should be taken off the air.
Giovanni Baggio, the head of AIART, a Catholic group that monitors Italian radio and television, called the ad “blasphemy” as Christians believe the communion wafer represents the body and blood of Christ.
In a statement, Baggio said the 30-second commercial was “outrageous” and that it “offends the sensitivity of millions of practicing Catholics by trivializing the comparison between the potato chip and the consecrated object.”
The Catholic newspaper Avvenire also criticized the ad in an editorial: “Christ has been reduced to a potato chip. Debased and vilified like 2,000 years ago.”
Italy’s advertising standards authority, the IAP, announced an order for the commercial to be taken off air, after the outcry. Amica Chips has seven days to appeal the decision, during which time broadcasts will continue. The order does not apply to online placements.
Social media users also reacted to the ad.
“This is blasphemy! Respect Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist!” wrote one Instagram user.
Another said: “You don’t play with God. To my Italian friends, I suggest a total boycott of this company.”
Watch the video here
https://x.com/Fawollo1/status/1777743560361533677
