AUCKLAND The short-lived Tui beer billboards about Christ and Christmas served a purpose, a Catholic Church spokeswoman said. After protests, Dominion Breweries took down the billboards, which read This Christmas lets take a moment to remember Christ Yeah Right.
Catholic Communications national director Lyndsay Freer sees how offence could have been taken and said it is probably not a bad thing they were taken down.
But the billboards also pointed, maybe inadvertently, to people being desensitised to the real meaning of Christmas, which has become hijacked by commercial interests.
As a result, the issue had a far wider airing than if the Church had attempted to spark discussion, she said.
It was a point Mrs Freer made to media.
If there is a positive message to be gained, it is better to use that, she told NZ Catholic.
But a line is drawn at indecent and outrageous material, she said, citing the South Park episode Bloody Mary, which was taken to the High Court.
Mrs Freer said the removal of the billboards sends a message to advertisers to think carefully about using Christian figures and symbols.
The Waikato Times reported a DB spokeswoman as saying our stance from the start was to highlight that Christmas has lost its true meaning.
The billboards had been taken the wrong way by some people, so were being taken down.
