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Posters promoting Demi Lovato’s latest album Holy Fvck have come under fire in the UK. They have been banned in the country after protestors deemed it to be possibly offensive to Christians.
Netizens have since taken to social media opining that the artwork cannot be prohibited just because certain people are against it.
On January 11, the Great Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority released a statement announcing that they had launched an investigation into the posters that promoted Demi Lovato’s newest album in London. The ban came after four people complained to the board about the content of the art piece.
In their statement, the ASA revealed that the image of Demi Lovato wearing a bondage-styled outfit and lying on a mattress shaped like a crucifix, with the words “Holy Fvck” written on the poster can possibly cause “serious offense to Christians,” which led to it being banned. They said:
“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.”
They also revealed that protestors stated that the posters were placed in locations where children could see them.
Netizens react to Demi Lovato’s Huly Fvck posters being banned in the UK
Internet users were outraged by the ban. Many noted that the board could not entirely prohibit a poster because it offended a community.
Some also noted that the complaints of four people were not enough to announce a ban over a piece of artwork. Other netizens who revealed that they were Christian wrote online that they did not find the poster problematic.
A few comments online read:
Television personality Sharon Osbourne also weighed in on the matter and stood against the ban. She said on The Talk:
“Those four people who are offended, don’t get the album! Don’t look at the poster and move on!”
“It’s f**king rock n’ roll”: Demi Lovato defends her album name in older interview
Demi Lovato has expressed concern over the name of the album in the past as well. In a July interview with SiriusXM, Lovato shared:
“I remember being the one asking questions like, “am I gonna be able to say this? And what do I say instead? And it’s just like, look, “it’s f**king rock n’ roll. They’ll bleed you if they need to and, like, if they don’t even better.”
Since the album’s release, it has ranked in the seventh spot on the Billboard 200 chart. Tracks including Skin of My Teeth, Substance and 29 nabbed the top places on several other music charts. The album also stood at the number one spot on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart.
This is not the first time a musician’s artwork has come under question. In 1989, Madonna’s Like a Prayer video was brutally condemned by religious organizations for being blasphemous. In 1992, the singer was also banned from the Vatican after the release of her Erotica music video.
