Easter Madness: When Historical Events have Social Media Pages

Following the hilarious and hugely successful campaign using fake Facebook pages to represent historical events and figures (as seen here ), the concept appears to have popped up again in the annual showdown between Good and Evil that occurs in downtown Auckland.

The latest TBWA Agency offering shows the Crucifixion as a Facebook shared Image with one "like" by Judas.

Those of you living outside of New Zealand or unaware of the regular showdowns that occur at Saint Matthew's in the City may be surprised to know that these adverts are actually sponsored "as thought-provoking messages with the aim of inspiring healthy debate and reflection", by the Church itself !

The self-proclaimed progressive Anglican Church in the heart of Auckland City is not one to shy away from controversy, posting a picture of the Virgin Mary looking at the results of a pregnancy test in the run up to Christmas last year.

St. Matthews in December 2011

And who can forget that other sparring partner, who plays along the same lines? The much-loved and much reviled Hell Pizza which has seen itself pulled up for similar scandals in the past and which have, nevertheless, brought many a smile to consumer's faces.

Interestingly, Hell's provocative messages have actually added to the ongoing antics of Saint Matthew's Church as seen when they chose to respond in kind to Hell's "Hot Cross Buns" Ad last year.

The provocative Hell Cross Buns deliberately coincided with the Christian Easter Traditions

The Hell Pizza billboards compared their new hot cross buns range to Jesus. The buns, emblazoned with a five-pointed star commonly associated with Satanism and the occult, were accompanied by the slogan: "For a limited time. A bit like Jesus." Instead of complaining, Auckland’s St Matthew in the City took a different approach.

The Auckland church hit back at the controversial Hell Pizza advertisement with their own billboard.

The billboard outside the central Auckland church took a bite directly out of the Hell Pizza ad, using the same image of the five-pointed star, hot cross bun accompanied with the slogan: "Hell no. We’re not giving up pizza for Lent.".

In 2009 there were complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority for a billboard alluding to the sexual activities of the parents of Jesus.  On it, Mary and Joseph are in bed. Joseph looks down dejected. Mary looks sad. The caption reads: "Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow."

Without taking sides or wanting to open the debate on when adverts overstep the mark and infringe on people's beliefs, one thing is certainly different in all of these adverts. When was the last time a Pizza Company or a Church made you want to laugh ?