ST Controversial advert which was to run with TFA in England?

As a few others have stated, I think It is a bit out of place, and the movies is someplace people generally go for the purpose of escapism. That being said, I think getting so upset and outraged about this ad being played is just a silly as being upset and outraged that they WOULDN'T play this ad. I can't see the big deal. As I said, I can see why some people would find it to be 'strangely placed' but I really don't understand the outrage(But I am also not surprised by it. Nothing new, just still hard to understand this sort of reaction to it)

 

Unless it IS England, right? I mean, it is the Church of England, after all!

 

I'm not sure the excuse from the cinemas that they don't run religious or political ad's is quite right.

When the SE's were released in spring 1997 that was during the 1997 UK general election and I'm sure there were political ad's/PPB's running before The Empires Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi that spring...

 

If the church in the UK think they are going to reach out to people prior to watching a movie, their days on these Islands are truly coming to an end

 

Forgive my ignorance as it may have been covered in the article, but is this a government restriction or something left up to private entities? Digital Cinema Media doesn't strike me as a government entity. I'll drop a note here that if it's the former, it is as an egregious violation of freedom of religion, and I think it's worth being outraged about.

If the latter, which I suspect it is, people need to calm down. It's probably wise for theaters to abide by that rule, so I'd call it a smart business decision. People are free to boycott theaters if they're angry about the ad being pulled. If Star Wars is more important to them than what they view as a matter of importance to their faith, then that's their prerogative, but perhaps they should start asking questions about what they believe and their reasons for belief.

Of course, I'm an American so in my experience, I have different views about life, liberty, and property than the general population of the UK.

I'm rather sick of the victim mentality in general, but as a Christian, I find it particular obnoxious coming from other Christians who hold themselves to a different standard that people/organizations of other religions. Hypocrisy won't save souls or lives, or assist people who share my faith in following Christ's commandment to love others, a requirement Christians too often ignore.

So unless they'd be okay with faux-Satanists or real Satanists or atheists or Muslims etc airing a similar ad, they ought to just shut up.

 

There's a lot of misconceptions on this thread. I'm a UK resident, and full disclosure, I'm an atheist, though I'm not really one to bang on about it (grew out of that phase long ago)

First; the advert isn't banned. It has been rejected as part of a long standing agreement by cinemas to not accept religious or political advertising.
The reasons for this are, I'd wager, not so much not to offend, but because customers have said that they don't like religion or politics in the cinema.

Second; while implied by the above, just to clarify, it's not a knee jerk thing to any "current circumstances" - there may well be an underlying idea that they don't want to be in a position where they're on dodgy ground rejecting an advert from an extremist branch of a religion when they've accepted ads from mainstream religion, but generally, it's more about the first reason

Third; religious groups already know this. I wouldn't be surprised if the Church of England are quite happy to have their ad rejected on the basis that the rejection can be portrayed as cinemas banning religion

Fourth: seriously, you guys don't believe the "stand up for the national anthem" cliche do you? It's every bit as untrue a stereotype as the ridiculous idea that Americans don't get irony

Fifth: the C of E have been canny in doing this in front of a massive, massive film, and one which features a mysterious, invented religion. It's not a free speech issue (cinemas are free to not accept ads they don't wish to show, the C of E are free to out the ad on their website, which they have) and it's all a bit embarrassing.

Sixth: think about what film is. What directors try to do, how they question things, sometimes things held dear. Do we really want, say, a religious group putting an ad that is contrary to the spirit of a provocative film? As in, imagine a religious message about traditional marriage before Brokeback Mountain; whether you agree or disagree with homosexuality, the people going to watch the piece of art, shouldn't have to be view a paid for advert that opposes the film. A filmmaker has the right to make a film without that insidious idea of "balance"; it's a short step from, say, a religious advert that implicitly juxtaposes Christianity with either Star Wars the commercial entity, or the concept of The Force, to a political advert that attempts to undermine the film that follows it. Best to keep all politics and religious adverts out of the cinema, I think.

 

I find one of the greatest crimes I commit is to renege my better judgement. I shouldn't have entered this thread.

 

Does it matter? I mean come movies usually have 15 mins of ads or something absurd who actually pays attention especially in the age of portable electronics.

 

It's not that. They probably don't want to offend poor muslims... Because islam is peace, right? Political correctness is corrosion for common sense. It is England. Church of England is part of that culture. I don't even view it as a strictly religious boogie in this case. Welcome to England! Where anyone can be offended, except the English. smh

 

Hokey religions are no match for a good blaster at your side.

 

U know I be more sympathetic to your whining if England (Christians I should note) hadnt invaded almost every country on the Planet and didnt run one of the biggest empires in history without about 1/3 the World Under their thumb responsible for plenty of atrocities. Just saying.

 

OK, I think this thread has run its course... and its topic was never really all that related to SW or TFA anyway. Locking.