Competition to Design T-Shirts for Cannes International Advertising Festival

Levi’s and T-Shirts Make a Fitting Outfit

Clariant Makes New Dyes For All Clothing Including T-Shirts

SPCS Praises Censors' Ban on Cradle of Filth T-Shirts

Tuesday 01st of July 2008 11:28:40 AM

John Mills, President of the New Zealand-based organization that calls itself "Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc." (SPCS), has hailed as "bold, morally courageous and legally sound" the classification decision issued to him by the New Zealand Chief Censor's Office that permanently bans a CRADLE OF FILTH T-shirt he argued was "grossly objectionable due to its obscene content" and "completely vilifies the central figure of Christianity." The Censor's Office apparently agreed with Mills, an elder at the Kapiti Christian Centre, that the T-shirt, worn and flaunted in a large public gathering on the Kapiti Coast and a part-image of which was published in the Kapiti Observer newspaper, should be classified "objectionable."

The censor "noted its sexually degrading image of a traditional Roman Catholic nun, and its grossly obscene and blasphemous language" directed at "the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is worshipped, adored, praised and revered as the central Person of Christianity," according to a press release issued by the SPCS. "The use of vile Satanic imagery emblazoned on the T-shirt, including depictions of dripping blood, linked to the heavy metal band CRADLE OF FILTH and lewd and inflammatory content directed at Christians, was also noted by the censors."

In the classification decision (No. 800513) on the apparel entitled "Vestal Masturbation (Cradle of Filth)" dated June 26, 2008, signed by Ms Nicola McCully, the Deputy Chief Censor, it states:

"The injury to the public good that is likely to be caused by the availability of this T-shirt originates from the manner in which it associates an aggressive and misogynistic meaning of the 'harsh, brutal and generally unacceptable' word cunt with Jesus Christ, and depicts an image of a chaste woman engaging in sexual activity. A fair interpretation of the messages conveyed by this T-shirt is that Christians should be vilified for their religious beliefs, and that women, including chaste and celibate women, cannot stop themselves engaging in sexual activity…" (OFLC No. 800513)

(c)Daniela Llano, www.sxc.hu