Advertising News South Africa

Dark times for Light Church billboard?

NEWSWATCH: A billboard erected by the Light of Nations Church has been damned by OUT, the gays rights group, and others - including the general public - for seemingly implying to some that homosexuality is an "affliction", reports IOL.

For more:


  • IOL: Church blasted over anti-gay billboard... Is it "lights out" for the controversial billboard? Apparently the ASA has received a number of complaints - and they got them before the word "homosexuality" was removed.

    Some might say that bringing sexual orientation into an advertising message by apparently juxtaposing the word "homosexuality" with words such as "drugs", "lies", "depression", "porn" and "alcohol abuse" is not perhaps the wisest thing to do.

    IOL reports the church's co-founder Dr Deric Linley as saying the church wanted to highlight challenges of everyday life that people dealt with regularly, not 'sins' and it was never their intention to "discriminate against any group, but purely to offer a non-judgmental refuge for people".

    That may be well and good, but again, some people might also argue in turn that they've never found homosexuality, whether their own or that of other people, to be a "challenge". As far as I know, the word "challenge" is most often understood to be something that by its nature or character demands a special effort if it is to be met and overcome.

About Rod Baker

Rod Baker is Content Director at Bizcommunity.com. A journalist since before computers, he worked on a wide range of magazines and, in his youth, rose through the ranks from being a lowly and abused sub-editor, to a high and still abused editor and publisher. He has been editor and publisher of a number of magazines, as well as a newspaper. He has edited many books, and written a number too. Email him at moc.ytinummoczib@dor.
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