We Dare Pepsi to Accept the Jihad Challenge

Last week, I dared Pepsi to take the jihad challenge. Or at least to treat Islam with the same disrespect and ridicule as they did in the Super Bowl ad mocking Catholicism posted on their website. Funny? Not. Insulting to Catholics? Totally. In a free country, these demeaning cheap shots are to be expected, but I dare Pepsi to mock Islam.

Atlas readers voted, emailed, called along with many others to voice their disgust. Pepsi, with their tail between their legs, has removed the ad. Ad showing DORITOS chips as Eucharists yanked from Super Bowl...

USA Today is crowing about it now. But where were they before the ad was removed? MIA. As if the media gives a fig when anyone insults or mocks Christianity:

But the body and blood of Christ are no joke to Catholics who believe they are in Communion with their God when they accept the Eucharist and the wine during Mass.

Hence the uproar among some believers when they saw one of the 5,000+ entries in the annual competition for a slot in the Super Bowl ad line up.

Feed your Flock begins with a Catholic priest at his desk surrounded by bills for the parish, which clearly needs more income in the collection plate (why else show the stack of bills?).

Since it's his job to offer spiritual food to the flock, he takes it to another level (the pits, I'd say). The video shows the faithful lining up for Communion and getting Doritos (in two flavors, no less) instead of the Eucharist, the sacramental bread which Catholics believe is the body of Christ. And, you guessed it, the sacramental wine, considered to be the blood of Christ, is dished out as Pepsi MAX.

You don't have to be Catholic to find this irredeemably offensive. Hence, I'm not embedding the video. According to the Mashable Business site,

The maker of the ad, a Philadelphia firm called Media Wave Productions, however, says that interpretation is way off base....

Dave Williams, president of MediaWave, says he pulled the ad from Pepsi's site and from YouTube. "We felt bad," he says. "Our intention was to win, not to offend."

Ya think? How could it have been anything but offensive to the one in four Americans who call themselves Catholic? What's surprising is that it made it up on the Pepsi site for consideration at all. Were there no standards for submission?

Needless to say, the Pepsico site listing the top 10 finalists does not include Feed your Flock and a representative of the company apologized for any offense.
Atlas Shrugs