Promos for pop star Demi Lovato’s album Holy Fvck have been banned in the United Kingdom for featuring images deemed offensive to Christians.
Released in August, the promos for Lovato’s album featured highly provocative images using religious iconography, including one that featured the BDSM-clad singer laying out over a crucifix-shaped mattress. As many as four people complained to Great Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about the images, which led to the ban.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ASA said that the suggestive image of Lovato on the crucifix mattress coupled with the words “Holy Fvck” too closely tied the sacred Christian symbol to sex.
“We considered that the image of Ms. Lovato bound up in a bondage-style outfit whilst lying on a mattress shaped like a crucifix, in a position with her legs bound to one side which was reminiscent of Christ on the cross, together with the reference to ‘holy fvck’, which in that context was likely to be viewed as linking sexuality to the sacred symbol of the crucifix and the crucifixion, was likely to cause serious offense to Christians,” the ASA said.
Lovato herself openly wondered how she could promote the album in the past due to its crass title.
“I remember being the one asking questions, like, ‘Am I gonna be able to say this? And what do I say instead?'” she said in a Sirius XM interview back in July. “And it’s just like, look, it’s f–king rock n’ roll. They’ll bleep you if they need to and, like, if they don’t, even better.”
According to Billboard, Lovato’s album “debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and has spawned singles ‘Skin of My Teeth,’ ‘Substance’ and ‘29.'”
Lovato, who identifies as gender fluid, recently made waves when she returned to using she/her pronouns last year after she had a they/them non-binary pronoun stint.
“Yeah, so, they/them is um, I’ve actually adopted the pronouns of she/her again,” Lovato said on the Spout podcast. “I’m such a fluid person. I felt like, especially last year, my energy was balanced in my masculine and feminine energy, so that when I was faced with the choice of walking into a bathroom and it said ‘women’ and ‘men,’ I didn’t feel like there was a bathroom for me, because I didn’t feel necessarily like a woman. I didn’t feel like a man. I just felt like a human.”
“And that’s what they/them is about for me. It’s just about, like, feeling human at your core,” she added. “Recently, I’ve been feeling more feminine, and so I’ve adopted she/ her again. But I think what’s important is, like, nobody’s perfect. Everyone messes up pronouns at some point, and especially when people are learning. It’s just all about respect.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.