list of contributors - GALA

Quite clearly the models are posing in a way that recalls a famous painting
(Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco “The Last Supper”), which is preserved in Milan
at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (see the original painting below).
(i) In Italy the Municipality (i.e. City Administration) of Milan, which is in
charge of supervising outdoor advertising, thought that the campaign could
result offensive to the religious feelings of a widespread number of citizens
and therefore decided to ask for a preliminary opinion of the Review Board
of the Institute of Advertising Self-Regulation before allowing the disposal of
the billboards.
In it’s opinion the Review Board held that:
- the ad contained a clear and explicit reference to Leonardo’s painting,
- the painting represents some of the most intimate aspects of Christian belief
(as the celebration of mass & the rite of the Holy Communion) and contain a
concentration of theological symbols,
- for those reasons such representation should not be used for parody and
commercial purposes, being likely to cause offence to the religious
sensitiveness of at least part of the city’s population (interestingly the Board
made clear that the opinion did not intend to consider specifically the
Catholic population, but had to be considered as a criterion, which every
religious group – even a minority – should have the right to benefit from).
Subsequently the Municipality did not permit the billboards to be displayed
on the streets in Milan.