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{{Display censorship incident
{{Display censorship incident
|ongoing=no
|ongoing=no
|year=1953
|year=2011
|region=North America
|region=Africa
|artist=James Baldwin,
|artist=Unilever
|subject=Explicit Sexuality, Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Religion, Sexual/Gender Orientation, Violence
|subject=Religion
|confronting_bodies=Hudson Falls School Board, Hudson Falls, NY
|confronting_bodies=South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
|medium=Literature
|medium=Commercial Advertising
|date_of_action=February 1994
|date_of_action=October 14, 2011
|location=Hudson Falls, NY
|location=South Africa
|description_of_content=''Go Tell it On the Mountain'' was James Baldwin's semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story and debut novel. It has been used in schools since its publication in 1953.
|description_of_content=Unilever's television advertisement for the "Excite" scent of Axe (known as Lynx in the UK and Australia) deodorant featured attractive female angels crashing down from the sky into an Italian town because they are attracted to an average looking man wearing the deodorant. They lasciviously watch the man while sniffing the air.  One by one, the angels smash their halos and advance towards him. At the end of the commercial, a voice-over says, "Excite, the new fragrance from Axe. Even angels will fall."
 
|description_of_incident=A viewer complained to South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the suggestion of God's messengers literally falling for a mortal being because of a deodorant was incompatible with his belief as a Christian.  
It tells the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship to his family and his church. The novel also reveals the back stories of John's mother, his biological father, and his violent, religious fanatic step-father, Gabriel Grimes. The novel focuses on the role of the Pentecostal Church in the lives of African-Americans, as a negative source of repression and moral hypocrisy and also as a positive source of inspiration and community. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked ''Go Tell It on the Mountain'' 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time Magazine included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". (source: Wikipedia)
|description_of_result=The ASA agreed with the complaint, and ordered Unilver to withdraw the advertisement and issued the following statement; "The problem is not so much that angels are used in the commercial, but rather that the angels are seen to forfeit, or perhaps forego their heavenly status for mortal desires. This is something that would likely offend Christians in the same manner as it offended the complainant." The advertisement was not televised in South Africa.
|description_of_incident=Among a number of books challenged in the [[Hudson Falls Book Bannings]], "Go Tell it on the Mountain" was challenged as required reading in the Hudson Falls, N.Y. schools because the book has recurring themes of rape, masturbation, violence and degrading treatment of women. It had already been challenged as a ninth-grade summer reading option in Prince William County, Va. (1988) because the book was "rife with profanity and explicit sex." (Source: 2004 Banned Books Resource Guide by Robert P. Doyle).
|image=A24041 ELVIS ANGELS FRANCIS AXE 300x222 p4p.jpg
|description_of_result=Unknown
|source=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/8850294/Deodorant-commercial-banned-for-offending-Christian.html
|image=Go tell it on the mountain.jpg
}}
}}
[http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?ContentID=136590&Section=bbwlinks&Template=%2FContentManagement%2FContentDisplay.cfm Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century], ALA
image source: http://amg133.blogspot.com/2011/10/will-i-see-angel-again.html
 
[https://www.thoughtco.com/banned-books-by-african-american-authors-45170 Banned Books by African-American Authors], ThoughtCo., Updated November 02, 2017
 
[http://ncac.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/banned_books_catalog_2013_2column2.pdf National Coalition Against Censorship 2013 “Banned Books Library” Catalog]


[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Tell_It_on_the_Mountain_(novel) Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)], Wikipedia
youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnBHHcdHJQ
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Revision as of 21:42, 8 February 2021

Featured Case: Democracy in America (exhibition)


A24041 ELVIS ANGELS FRANCIS AXE 300x222 p4p.jpg

Artist: Unilever

Year: 2011

Date of Action: October 14, 2011

Region: Africa

Location: South Africa

Subject: Religion

Medium: Commercial Advertising

Confronting Bodies: South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

Description of Artwork: Unilever's television advertisement for the "Excite" scent of Axe (known as Lynx in the UK and Australia) deodorant featured attractive female angels crashing down from the sky into an Italian town because they are attracted to an average looking man wearing the deodorant. They lasciviously watch the man while sniffing the air. One by one, the angels smash their halos and advance towards him. At the end of the commercial, a voice-over says, "Excite, the new fragrance from Axe. Even angels will fall."

The Incident: A viewer complained to South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the suggestion of God's messengers literally falling for a mortal being because of a deodorant was incompatible with his belief as a Christian.

Results of Incident: The ASA agreed with the complaint, and ordered Unilver to withdraw the advertisement and issued the following statement; "The problem is not so much that angels are used in the commercial, but rather that the angels are seen to forfeit, or perhaps forego their heavenly status for mortal desires. This is something that would likely offend Christians in the same manner as it offended the complainant." The advertisement was not televised in South Africa.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/8850294/Deodorant-commercial-banned-for-offending-Christian.html



image source: http://amg133.blogspot.com/2011/10/will-i-see-angel-again.html

youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnBHHcdHJQ





























What is Censorpedia?

Censorpedia is a crowdsourced online database of censorship cases within the arts and in culture. It is aimed at those researching censorship, at activists working for freedom of expression and at artists and other cultural producers whose expression has been subject to censorship or attempted censorship.

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Researchers can search for a specific case, year or keyword using the search box, as well as browse by medium, by grounds for censorship, or explore a random case.

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