Short answer, in my opinion: yes.

The car company is running the ad below during the World Cup soccer coverage. One observer wrote:

I don’t understand the rationale behind companies running ads to sell stuff that offends potential customers. Hyundai has an ad running during the world cup that shows a wedding in a Church in Argentina mimicking Catholic worship using Latin chants and a censor and a mock communion. I found it so completely bizarre that I’m still shaking my head. One thing is for sure, though. I would never buy a Hyundai after watching the ad. Would you?

Count me out.  It’s one thing to gently poke fun at extreme devotion to sports.  It’s another to satirize Holy Mass by ridiculing its symbols, sacramentals and gestures.  This doesn’t even rise to the level of Monty Python.  And really: the shot of the guy being given pizza as if it were communion is just…awful.   

But don’t take my word for it.  Decide for yourself below.

UPDATE: As some commenters have noted, the ad has now been pulled. Read all about it.

      

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