The supermarket giant Tesco has offended Christians across Britain with a newspaper ad that completely fails to understand Good Friday.
The text of the newspaper ad suggests Good Friday, a day of sorrow, fasting and penitence when Christians remember the date of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago, is actually a 'good' day.
Tesco suggests customers can make it even better by having a few drinks.
The offensive ad reads: 'Great offers on beer and cider. Good Friday just got better.'
The ad was picked up by Michael Wakelin, religious literacy expert and former head of religion at the BBC.
He posted it on Facebook, noting that it illustrates perfectly 'the need for religious literacy training'.
The ad also went viral on Twitter, where Retrak charity CEO Peter Fahy tweeted:
Tesco Good Friday ad not only crass but shows governments have made no progress in limiting supermarkets punting out cheap booze
— Peter Fahy (@peter1fahy) April 13, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">Church of Engand vicar and BBC presenter Rev Richard Coles commented: 'fail'.
RE fail @Tesco. pic.twitter.com/O84NRP0LsO
— Richard Coles (@RevRichardColes) April 13, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">Others also expressed their shock and disgust:
so @Tesco in need of religious literacy - Good Friday, the day a man was tortured & nailed to a cross, it's not about beer
— Bonnie Evans-Hills (@EvansHills) April 13, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">tesco good friday - who's running Tesco's marketing dept? Dumb & Dumber? Need educating about respecting their Christian customers.
— Valerie Thompson (@bergamotandbees) April 13, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">A Tesco spokesperson told Christian Today: 'We know that Easter is an important time of the year for our customers. It is never our intention to offend and we are sorry if any has been caused by this advert. We will not publish it again.'
