New Zealand churches upset over hot cross buns 'like Jesus'

A pizza company has caused outrage in New Zealand with billboards advertising hot cross buns accompanied by the slogan: "For a limited time. A bit like Jesus." Instead of the traditional Christian cross, the buns bear an inverted pentagram, a design symbolic of Satanism.

The giant billboards, placed by the Hell Pizza company, have been plastered around Auckland, the country's largest city. Lloyd Ashton, a spokesman for New Zealand's Anglican Church, condemned the advertising campaign as disgraceful. "It's disrespectful to what a lot of people hold very dear," he said.



"They've dared here to take a clumsy poke at something that numbers of people hold sacred." Patrick Dunn, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, said: "I suppose in some ways they are acknowledging that Jesus was around for a limited time, but a number of people might decide to boycott Hell pizzas for a while and I will be one of them."

Warren Powell, a director of the company, defended the campaign, saying: "I do not see how it could possibly be disrespectful to anyone's religion. We may bring them back next year, and everyone's saying that Jesus Christ is coming back one day," he said.