State TV ban ads for alcohol and lingerie during Pope's visit
Polish state television has agreed not to air ads for alcohol, contraceptives, lingerie – or even sanitary towels – when Pope Benedict XVI visits later this month, an official said today.
Suggestions of sex will also be strictly forbidden according to the guidelines, as will be commercials for explosives, though none are known to exist.
“There is always the risk that the faithful may feel hurt if programming devoted to the pope’s visit is interrupted by frivolous ads,” Zbigniew Badziak, head of advertising for Telewizja Polska, the state-run network operating three channels, said.
Benedict will make his first visit to the deeply Roman Catholic Poland, the homeland of his revered predecessor John Paul II, starting May 25.
State television imposed similar bans during John Paul’s visits and most advertisers have already supplied toned-down ads on their own in anticipation of the restrictions, Badziak said.
The restrictions affect some 10% of the ads currently being shown on Polish state television, he said.
An ad promoting the so-called multiple pleasures of a company’s television sets that features a couple appearing to have sex, currently aired only after 10pm, will not be shown at all, Badziak said.
The channels will also air no advertisements at all before or after they televise Masses that Benedict will lead during his stay.
The state television network operates three major channels that compete with a handful of private channels and many more cable and satellite offerings.
