*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Sausage nativity advert is most unsavoury, protesters object

17 November 2017

Greggs

Offensive: the Greggs nativity image

Offensive: the Greggs nativity image

A CLERGYMAN has criticised advertising by the Newcastle-based bakery Greggs which replaced Jesus with a sausage roll in a nativity scene.

The Team Vicar of Christ the King, Newcastle, the Revd Mark Edwards, has described it as “disrespectful”.

The image, which shows a sausage roll in a manger surrounded by figures of the magi, appears in advertising for a Greggs Advent calendar.

“I would have thought Greggs was better than that,” Mr Edwards said, ”, speaking to the Newcastle Chronicle on Tuesday. “If they tried that with any other faith you can imagine the outcry there would be, and rightly so.

“It goes beyond just commercialism; it’s showing a total disregard and disrespect towards one of the greatest stories ever told, and I think people of all faiths will be offended by this.”

Online criticism has included complaints that replacing a Jewish child with a pork sausage is particularly offensive. An online poll run by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday attracted more than 3000 votes in a matter of hours, two-thirds of which declared the image offensive.

Mr Edwards has complained in an email to the CEO of Greggs. He said: “I hope every other Christian will speak out, and I don’t think it will be just Christians speaking out.” He suggested that people “vote with their feet”.

A spokeswoman for Greggs said on Wednesday: “We’re really sorry to have caused any offence. This was never our intention.” The image, however, was “out there”, she said, and there was thus no intention to withdraw it.

In 2015, a Mulberry advertisement was criticised for replacing the infant Jesus with a handbag. By contrast, an advertisement produced by Christian agencies in the same year was banned from cinemas for breaking its code banning religious advertising.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)