Britain’s advertising authority bans pregnant nun ice cream ad.

An ice cream ad has been banned by Britain’s advertising watchdog, apparently out of fear that it will offend those people who believe that it is possible to get pregnant without having sex.

Actually, the “strapline” of the ad uses the phrase “immaculately conceived,” which is interesting. In my experience, most Catholics will tell you with some certainty that the “Immaculate Conception” refers to the “fact” that Mary gave birth to Jesus even though she never had sex with a man. I challenge you to try this out on Catholics. At least 3 out of 4 will say this, but it is fundamentally incorrect. The “Immaculate Conception” refers to the claim that Mary herself was born without original sin. The writers of the ad got it wrong too, though maybe they did so purposely, knowing that so many Catholics get it wrong. And a new Pew survey shows that devout believers notoriously get the basic facts of their faith wrong (and see this DI post). This is phenomenal, given that so many believers claim that their faith is quite important to them.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

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