GagWatch

The Moscow Times (via) reports that Coca-Cola has called off a promotion after offended Orthodox believers lodged a complaint with prosecutors.

Hoping to tap into a growing tide of patriotism, the U.S. beverage giant had placed pictures of religious sites together with its logo on fridges in kiosks and shops in Nizhny Novgorod, the country’s third-biggest city.

In mid-December, a group of Orthodox believers sent an angry letter to the Nizhny Novgorod prosecutor’s office, the local bishop and the regional governor complaining about the promotion, which it claimed was blasphemous.

The protesters had wanted Coca-Cola to face charges of “inciting religious hatred,” claiming that “large corporations have to take into account the local context, particularly the Christian context.” They changed their mind about pushing for a prosecution after Coca-Cola pulled the ads.

Irina Monakhova, a spokeswoman for the Nizhny Novgorod prosecutor’s office, said investigators were conducting an inquiry into the claims at the request of the residents and would make their findings known by the end of January.

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