Theater Rejects Easter Ad Over Use of 'Jesus'

The movie theater ad firm for Edwards Cinema in Town Center rejected an advertisement from a local church for using the name "Jesus" to promote its Easter service.

Compass Bible Church produced an ad that was scheduled to be shown on 45 screens in Southern California to promote its service at the Bren Center at UC Irvine on Easter Sunday.

According to Linda Kavadoy, director of communications at Compass Bible Church, before creating the ad, NCM Media Networks provided a list of guidelines. Nowhere in the guidelines was a restriction on the use of religious figures, she said.

"We were totally surprised," Kavadoy said. "It never entered our minds that such a non-controversial ad would be rejected."

The theme of the ad promoted the message of the service: "Did it really happen? Did Jesus die on the cross? Find out at the Bren."

The church paid $5,600 for the ad before it was rejected. The money was returned to the church, but Kavadoy said the church does not plan to purchase ad space elsewhere. The video ad was instead uploaded to YouTube.

NCM Media Networks handles pre-show cinema advertisements for many theaters in Orange County. NCM provided the following statement:

“NCM Media Networks maintains sole discretion over what advertising content we accept in our FirstLook pre-show, and we regularly run ads for local churches all over the country. Compass Bible Church was made aware of our advertising content guidelines and was given the opportunity to revise its ad accordingly to promote its Easter services in movie theaters. Compass Bible Church chose not to do so.”

Kavadoy said revising the ad meant it could state only the time and location of the Easter service with the name of the church.

"Jesus is the reason for the day, the reason for the service. We didn't want to remove that from the ad," she said.