Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Fast-food chain pulls 'Hail Mary' ads promoting chicken burger

A major Canadian fast-food chain is pulling a marketing campaign that promotes its chicken burgers with the phrase "Hail Mary" after a Roman Catholic bishop complained the ad was offensive.

Bishop Douglas Crosby, who represents a Roman Catholic diocese in western Newfoundland, said Monday he was taken aback by a flyer produced for Mary Brown's Inc. after he spotted it in a local newspaper last week.

Crosby said it was "thoughtless" for the company to use the title of a sacred, devotional prayer for Catholics to sell chicken sandwiches.

"I just took offence at that because Hail Mary means so much," Crosby said in an interview from Corner Brook, N.L.

"And here it is announcing a chicken burger for Mary Brown's chicken. I just thought at some point you've got to say this is inappropriate."

Crosby, bishop of the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. George's Diocese, sent a letter last week to the president of Mary Brown's Inc. to protest the ad.

"There are probably some who are rolling their eyes and saying that's the last thing we need - this old bishop kind of complaining about Mary Brown's chicken," he said.

But on Monday the company announced it would change the ads, effective immediately, removing all references to "Hail Mary" after hearing complaints from its customers.

"It was just an unfortunate mistake, that's all," said Denis Kavanagh, a senior business development consultant for Mary Brown's.

"Obviously our intent was to advertise a delicious chicken sandwich. It wasn't to offend anybody and if we have, we're sorry about that."

Kavanagh said the ad, which promoted a large chicken sandwich, was meant to build on an ongoing Roman-themed campaign where the call, "Hail Mary" was akin to "All Hail Caesar."

The campaign began about two weeks ago and included print, radio and television ads, as well as in-store flyers in four provinces.

Crosby said he was surprised that Mary Brown's decided so quickly to remove the ads.

"They handled it very rapidly and it sounds like in a very satisfactory way. ... It's certainly more than I expected," he said.

"I must get up there and get some Mary Brown's."

Kavanagh said he was surprised, too, at the attention the ad received.

"(But) it's Newfoundland, too, so politics and religion are quite close to everybody's heart," he said.

The franchise began in Newfoundland in 1969, when it opened its first outlet in St. John's.

The chain now has more than 70 outlets in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Alberta.
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