Michael Budde writes, “Like the Rolling Stones and other major concert acts, the Catholic Church has now taken on corporate sponsorship to underwrite the world tours of its major performer, Pope John Paul II. To finance his 1998 visit to Mexico city, the Archdiocese of Mexico City entered into sponsorship arrangements with more than two dozen firms, most of them major multinationals. The single largest sponsor, the Pepsi Cola-owned Sabritas chip company, paid $1.8 million for the right to use the pope’s image on its advertising and packaging. The company’s Spanish-language play on words – ‘Las Papas del Papa’ (the potatoes of the Pope) – was lost on absolutely no one; nor were the slogans and appeals of the other companies who plastered the pope’s image on billboards, print ads, and other locations in association with firms including a local cement company, Mercedes-Benz, American Express, and the local Bimbo bread company.”
When I first read about this from, I wasn’t sure it was real. Then I found this on the web, so it must be true: http://www.invisibleamerica.com/laspapas.html.
Feels good to know that Protestants don’t have a monopoly on religious kitsch.
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