The photo CNN cropped before using it for their article

Britain’s advertising watchdog has censured an Italian ice cream manufacturer over an advertisement depicting a heavily pregnant nun that appeared ahead of a papal visit to the UK.

The ad featuring the strapline “immaculately conceived” over an image of the expectant sister spooning from a tub of Antonio Federici ice cream was “likely to cause widespread offense,” the Advertising Standards Authority ruled…

The watchdog rejected the manufacturer’s claims that it was “using gentle humor” to convey the message that “ice cream is our religion…”

“We concluded that to use such an image in a light hearted way to advertise ice cream was likely to cause serious offence to readers, particularly those who practised the Roman Catholic faith.”

The Antonio Federici ad is the company’s second invoking religious imagery to fall foul of the ASA. An advertisement featuring a nun and a priest eyeing each other for a kiss was banned in July last year…

It said it had also been banned from showing another advertisement showing two men dressed as priests apparently on the brink of sharing a kiss. The ASA has not published any ruling on the ad.

A statement from Antonio Federici said the company was seeking to relaliate by securing a series of billboard advertisements along the route the pope’s motorcade is expected to take during his visit to London.

Har!