[1]NEWARK, N.J. (BP)–A campaign to protest a Miller Brewing Co. commercial depicting beer drinking in heaven is being waged by a Newark, N.J., pastor, according to a report in Religion News Service.
At issue is a TV commercial featuring three young male angels guzzling Miller Lite beer while partying in the clouds to hip-hop music.
Edward Smart, pastor of Israel Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, told RNS Dec. 23 the commercial “says that God sanctions beer, alcohol, substance abuse. … God doesn’t do that. I haven’t read that.” Smart also stated, “It’s theologically dangerous to assume that angels in heaven … are alcoholics.”
Smart has gathered more than 3,000 signatures on a petition urging that the ad be pulled, and he won a city council resolution in mid- December condemning the Milwaukee-based beer company’s ad, the Associated Press reported.
Miller spokeswoman Gina Shaffer told RNS the ad was not intended to be taken seriously. “We have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback,” she said. “People get that it’s very lighthearted, it’s very fun.” The commercial was created by the Minneapolis ad firm of Fallon and McElligott.
When the “angels” deplete their beers, RNS recounted, they look down on earth and create a gust of wind, causing a tree to fall in front of a Miller truck. When Miller Lite bottles fall out of the back of the truck and float up to heaven, the angels resume their party.