A potato chip commercial that features nuns receiving the crispy snacks for communion is “blasphemy” and should be taken off the air, according to an Italian Catholic organization.
The spot by Amica Chips features doe-eyed young nuns inside a convent delighting that their communion wafer, known as the host, is actually a potato chip.
A mother superior figure looks on as the nuns giggle, and it is revealed that it was her that substituted the hosts for potato chips in the box where communion wafers are kept, called a tabernacle.
The Catholic Church teaches the communion is the body and blood of Christ.
Giovanni Baggio, the head of AIART, a Catholic group that monitors Italian radio and television, called the ad “blasphemy.”
In a statement, Baggio said the 30-second commercial was “outrageous” and that it “offends the sensitivity of millions of practicing Catholics by trivializing the comparison between the potato chip and the consecrated object.”
The Catholic newspaper Avvenire also criticized the ad in an editorial: “Christ has been reduced to a potato chip. Debased and vilified like 2,000 years ago.”
Amid the backlash, Italy’s advertising standards authority, the IAP, announced an order for the commercial to be taken off air. Amica Chips has seven days to appeal the decision, during which time broadcasts will continue. The order does not apply to online placements.
Social media users also reacted in horror to the ad.
“This is blasphemy! Respect Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist!” wrote one Instagram user.
Another said: “You don’t play with God. To my Italian friends, I suggest a total boycott of this company.”
One user said Amica Chips had “offended all the Catholics of the world,” and another accused the company of “a very serious lack of respect.”
Amica Chips did not reply to a request for comment.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Catholic doctrine about the eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches communion wafers are transubstantiated into the blood and body of Jesus.
