Joking Jesus launches "happier Christmas" campaign

A laughing Jesus who bears more than a passing resemblance to Pavarotti (see our Born Twice section) is the centrepiece of a Christmas advertising campaign, launched today in London's Trafalgar Square.

Exhorting people to have a "happier Christmas at a church near you," the laughing Jesus is the sequel to an Easter campaign in 1999. It presented Christ as a revolutionary figure, in the style of a famous 1960s poster of Che Guevara, who helped Castro to power in Cuba. That appearance drew mixed reviews, with one Member of Parliament denouncing the image as "sacrilegious".

In marked contrast, the Christ of the new campaign has exchanged his conviction politics and crown of thorns for something much more agreeable – and almost hedonistic. So why the party animal image?

Jill Howard, of the Evangelical Alliance, one of the partners in the campaign, agrees that this is a "feelgood" poster. Its message is that Christmas is happier with Jesus than without him. "It captures his humanity and gets away from the more sombre images of Christ we often see," she says.

The Churches Advertising Network, the ecumenical group which devised the campaign, comments: "We are not saying that every church will automatically provide a happier Christmas, but we do want to remind people that Christmas is more than just a commercial festival and that Jesus was a man of humour and laughter. We hope that wherever the posters are used, people will find great singing, friendship and meaning."

It is planned that the poster will appear on vacant roadside hoardings in the two weeks leading up to Christmas, and also at bus stops and railway stations, and outside churches.

Says Jill Howard: "We're curious to see if people think Jesus is having a belly laugh, or is just being carefree."

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