TORONTO, December 18, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In response to complaints, Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) has unanimously ruled that MoonTaxi Media contravened the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards (clause 14c) in its depiction of a partially clothed nun in its recent national advertising campaign for Puretracks.com.
While acknowledging MoonTaxi Media’s defence of the image as “…visual imagery [used] to express the purity of our music audio, as well as the very essence of music itself – the individual creative spirit”, the ASC Council found that any depiction of a nun exposing her stomach or cleavage is as demeaning to Catholics as it is to nuns who, as servants of the Church, have committed their lives to virtue and celibacy.
In a release, the Catholic Civil Rights League said, “We believe that this ruling sends a clear signal that Catholics deserve the same protections afforded other identifiable groups in society, and that deeming the deeply held beliefs and values of religious citizens is not acceptable in a country that values religious tolerance and civility.”
Advertising Standards is the advertising industry’s self-regulatory mechanism, and as such, it does not hand out fines or order restitution for the offended parties. However, CCRL says “it is clear that PureTracks.com and MoonTaxi Media should immediately remove all of the offending ads displayed on billboards or otherwise across the country.” CCRL has written the company to request a formal apology to the Canadian Catholic community.