Vatican sics lawyers on Benetton for ad showing 'grave lack of respect' for Pope Dracula

Benetton, the Madonna of Italian clothing companies, has been running provocative ads for a looong time and has shown, according to the Hollywood Reporter, a priest kissing a nun, a close-up of a dead Bosnian soldier, another of a man dying of AIDS, and a black woman breast feeding a while child.

According to Reuters:

On the ad featuring Benedict and Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi criticized Benetton for exploiting the image of the pope.

     "We must express the firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and exploited in a publicity campaign with commercial ends,” Lombardi said in a statement. “This shows a grave lack of respect for the pope, an offence to the feelings of believers, a clear demonstration of how publicity can violate the basic rules of respect for people by attracting attention with provocation."