Luxury car brand Porsche is facing criticism after the company released an advertisement that edited out a massive statue of Jesus Christ [1] that overlooks the city of Lisbon, Portugal.
The controversy mirrors an incident in 2017 when Supermarket chain Lidl apologised for airbrushing Christian crosses out of images [2] of the island of Santorini’s domed blue churches on some of its Greek-themed food packaging.
The German car company launched a campaign last week celebrating six decades of its classic Porsche 911. It released a roughly two-and-a-half-minute ad depicting the evolution of the car.
About 44 seconds into a version of the video posted on the company’s website, a car drives across the screen against the backdrop of the bridge and river that the Cristo Rei statue overlooks, but the 92-feet-tall statue of Jesus was absent from atop the 269-feet-tall concrete pedestal that remains visible across the river.
Porsche subsequently apologised: “We are truly sorry and can fully understand the hurt this has caused. This film has been removed.”
On Sunday afternoon, Porsche uploaded a new version of the ad in which the statue is restored.