Posted on 10/26/2007 4:59:54 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Miller Brewing Apologizes for 'Last Supper' Poster By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor October 26, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - The Miller Brewing Company issued a formal apology on Friday for any offense caused by the use of its logos on a poster promoting the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco during late September by replacing Jesus and his disciples in Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of "The Last Supper" with half-naked homosexual sadomasochists.
In an email statement sent to Cybercast News Service by Senior Manager of Media Relations Julian Green, the company said it "has taken action to ensure that such an incident will not happen again."
"Miller has just completed an exhaustive audit of its marketing procedures for approving local marketing and sales sponsorships, and it is implementing plans to tighten its compliance procedures," the release stated. Folsom Street Fair poster "The company has received assurances from its local distributor in San Francisco and from Folsom Street Events that future marketing materials and event activities will fully comply with Miller's marketing policies and procedures," the statement added.
"We deeply regret that we did not adhere to our own policies with regard to the Folsom Street Fair," said Miller Senior Vice President Nehl Horton. "We apologize to everyone we offended as a result. We hope people will forgive us for this serious error and have confidence we will not repeat it."
"Miller Brewing was never afforded the opportunity to review our Fair poster before it was printed and distributed," said Andy Copper, board president of Folsom Street Events, which sponsors the "world's largest leather event" every year. "The approval was made by a third party without Miller's knowledge and consent."
Copper also issued an apology on behalf of the organization which distributed the controversial poster.
"I would like to apologize to anyone who felt that the image was disrespectful to their religious beliefs," said Copper. "No malicious intent was involved."
In addition to issuing a formal public apology, Miller sent letters of apology to Catholic archbishops George Niederauer of San Francisco and Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee.
"Like all major brewers, Miller seeks to market respectfully to a wide and diverse array of consumers," Horton concluded. "But when one group actively disrespects another, we cannot support its events and activities."
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, the poster first drew attention - and criticism - from the conservative group Concerned Women for America on Sept. 25.
"'Gay' activists disingenuously call Christians 'haters' and 'homophobes' for honoring the Bible, but then lash out in this hateful manner toward the very people they accuse," said Matt Barber, CWA's policy director for cultural issues, at the time.
Within 24 hours, Miller Brewing Company asked to have its logo removed from the advertisement even though Copper said there was no intention "to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to be reminiscent of the 'Last Supper' painting."
On Sept. 26, the Catholic League for Religious Civil Rights issued a press release expressing outrage that Miller still supported the event despite the fact that a portion of the money raised by the festival was going to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic group that held a fundraiser entitled "The Last Supper With the Sisters."
The following day, Catholic League President Bill Donohue announced that his organization was boycotting Miller Brewing Company products and urged more than 200 other religious organizations to do the same.
A Cybercast News Service investigation determined that some of the funding for the festival came from a city program to support "parades and celebrations," as well as a "Zero Waste" grant from the San Francisco Department of the Environment to promote "recycling, materials reuse and waste reduction for municipal, commercial and residential clients."
On Sept. 28, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) - whose district is host to the event, which draws about 300,000 attendees each year - said: "I do not believe that Christianity has been harmed by the Folsom Street Fair advertising."
According to the event's Web site, the 2007 festival drew record attendance and therefore was "a total success." Next year's street fair is scheduled to be held on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2008.
Too little...too late
Liar.
Keep in mind Miller says nothing about withdrawing funding. In other words, they plan to enable the same filth next year. They just won’t advertise it as much.
I’d boycott them,but I don’t drink their swill now....
I’m still boycotting them - their statement was self-serving and does nothing to redress the wrong they committed.
I wonder when it will fight back.
I can not believe that this was a surprise to Miller. Some one should have approved it or they should pull their sponsorship.
I volunteer at a nonprofit that gets decent corporate money. In the agreements for most of the larger corporate foundation grants, we are required to pass ANY ad or document that mentions the name of the company to them for approval. Even if we are sending a fundraising letter saying something like “we produce events like Company X’s Starlight Night at the River” they usually want to see it.
And that’s philanthropy. This is regular marketing, which is where the philanthropy regulations originated.
A better apology would be for the horse piss they pass off as beer.
From some of the photos I saw of this "fair", i would conservatively classify it as a degenerate street orgy of the most abhorrant kind............the most disgusting s&%t I have ever seen........
Miller Beer will never enter my house again........
100% pure bullcrap.
http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/328821750.html
NEW YORK, Oct. 25 /Standard Newswire/ — Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded today to the latest news regarding Miller’s sponsorship of anti-Catholicism:
“The Miller Brewing Company and the Board of Directors of the Folsom Street Fair have both issued press statements this week apologizing for the offensive Last Supper poster that was used to promote the event. As such, they have insulted Catholics one more time. Let me be specific.
“The poster was the least offensive part of this Catholic-bashing forum. What was even more offensive was the sight of Christian symbols being sold at this Miller-sponsored fair as sex toys. The obscene and blasphemous names of these vulgar sex toys are so disgusting that no mainstream newspaper would print them. Then there was the incredible sight of a stripper and a man dressed as Jesus hoisted in cages above a Catholic church on a Sunday. This was done to provoke, taunt and insult Catholics. And who greeted everyone at the street fair? Men dressed as nuns Had they been dressed like Al Jolson—with blackened faces—they would have been run out of town as racists.
“The Folsom Street Fair news release on this subject shows how utterly clueless its officers are. It says, ‘The mission is to create volunteer-driven leather events that provide the adult alternative lifestyle community with safe venues for self-expression while emphasizing freedom, fun, frolic and fetish and raising funds to benefit charity.’
“To which I say: If your idea of a ‘safe venue’ ‘self-expression’ and ‘fun’ includes men being beaten with chains in broad daylight, men who masturbate in the street, and men who perform oral sex on each other in public—I have pictures of these acts—then spare Catholics of your ‘fun.’ Leave us out of it and you can do to each other whatever you want.
“The only thing Miller is worried about is its logo appearing on a poster for an event it could not possibly defend. Not until it pledges not to sponsor Catholic-bashing events will the Catholic League call off its boycott and its anti-Miller PR campaign. We’re like that proverbial fly who just won’t go away.”
Then just what was the intent? How in world could this be taken ANY other way than a slam on Christians and Jesus. There is NO other context.
lol, that’s what I was thinking. They are just jealous of the Christian monks who brewed real beer.
Pelosi is the worst Speaker of the House in the history of Speakers of the House, and a really stupid human being. Of course Christianity hasn't been harmed - the promise of God's love and life everlasting is more powerful than death itself. But Christians everywhere have been offended. I guess that doesn't matter. Wonder why the freaks don't try to offend the islamofascists by putting Mohammed in one of their homosexual scenarios.
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It took them a month -- totally unacceptable.
Too late: We already saw who you really are.
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