UK Cinemas: JustPray.UK
Add your voice to the chorus: Allow prayer ad in UK cinemas
Add your voice to the chorus: Allow prayer ad in UK cinemas
A Church of England advertisement, called Just Pray UK and featuring the Lord's Prayer, has been banned from cinemas by the advertising agency which handles cinema ads for Odeon and Cineworld.
This form of censorship has no place in a multi-cultural Britain, and this petition calls on Digital Cinema Media (DCM), the advertising company at the centre of this controversy, to reverse its decision and allow this ad to air in time for Christmas.
DCM, which is jointly-owned by Odeon and Cineworld, and which took the decision to ban the prayer ad, said that it had a policy of not accepting religious advertising in cinemas.
However, a Daily Mail investigation has shown that this policy was written only two days before this story hit the press last Sunday, in the Mail on Sunday.
If you wish to view the advertisement, please click on the picture above, or go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlUXh4mx4gI
The ad, which shows Britons from all walks of life praying the Lord's Prayer, has received nearly a half-million views on Youtube.
And, as the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the Mail: "This advert is about offensive as a carol service or a church service on Christmas Day."
In the same article, Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, echoed the Archbishop's comments, saying: "I am flabbergasted that anyone would find this prayer offensive to anybody, including people of no particular religious belief."
But, while senior management of DCM took this decision to ban this ad, they have approved the glorification of sex, alcohol and violence, to minors, in the following adverts shown to movie-goers before the screening of 12A-rated films:
- Naked models for DKNY perfumes play the roles of Adam and Eve.
- Heineken beer and Tanqueray gin advertisements.
- An 18-rated video game, called Assassins Creed Syndicate, where players murder their "target" and then hide out in Victorian London.
So, while these ads, which might well prove offensive to minors and the parents of minors, have not been pulled, the Just Pray ad has been banned.
This makes no sense.
No-one is chained to their cinema seat. Just as anyone is free to leave the cinema screening of a movie or ad which they find offensive, they are also free to leave the auditorium during the 56-second showing of Just Pray.
But, this type of censorship of spiritual things does not bode well for Great Britain. Do DCM think that individual Britons can no longer tolerate a free and frank exchange of ideas about important matters of faith?
That is a path fraught with danger.
Again, this petition asks that the senior management of DCM reverse its decision to ban the Just Pray campaign.
Thank you for adding your voice to the chorus of people who want to see Just Pray in British cinemas.
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Digital Cinema Media (UK): Allow Lord's Prayer Cinema Ad
Dear Senior Management of Digital Cinema Media,
Your decision to reject the tasteful and innocuous ad of Britons, from all walks of life, praying the Lord's Prayer is a regrettable form of censorship.
It is regrettable for a number of reasons:
First, it denies freedom of expression to Christians and, in this context, to all people of prayer.
Second, it highlights the hypocrisy evident by your showing other ads and movies - many of which are aimed at children - which glorify sex, lust and violence. In this regard, you appear more as purveyors of vice, rather than virtue.
And, third, your banning of this ad, which has now received nearly 500,000 views on Youtube - especially during Advent - makes you appear as particularly tone-deaf to the deep spirituality of the British people.
But, in this season of giving, hope is not lost!
You can still reverse your decision. By doing so, you can redeem this poor decision, and demonstrate that you understand that people are meant for more than sex, drugs and violence.
By doing so, you can show that you understand that people have a spiritual aspect which needs nurturing.
Please reinstate this ad into your cinema ad line-up.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
