Britain’s Tesco supermarket chain criticised for Good Friday ad

A SUPERMARKET chain is in hot — possibly holy — water after a Good Friday ad camapign sparked anger among Christians.

A UK supermarket chain has been accused of cashing in on Good Friday and being “extraordinarily ignorant” of the day’s true meaning.

Tesco, Britain’s largest grocer, was forced to apologise over a Good Friday beer advert after being attacked by Christians, reported The Sun.

The advert, which was printed in some newspapers in the run up to Easter, read: “Great offers on beer and cider. Good Friday just got better.”

Tesco is Britain’s largest supermarket chain.

Reverend Richard Coles, a presenter on BBC television, shared a picture of the advert and described it as an “RE [religious education] fail”.

In reply to another social media user, he said: “It gets the Good of Good Friday wrong — and it will cause offence to many of their customers.”

He later added: “Good Friday is deeply significant to Christians and Tesco could have flogged their booze differently.”

Rev Coles also criticised as “extraordinarily and unnecessarily ignorant”.

Good Friday is when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ ahead of Easter Sunday.

RE fail @Tesco. pic.twitter.com/O84NRP0LsO

— Richard Coles (@RevRichardColes) April 13, 2017

A Tesco spokesman said: “We know that Easter is an important time of the year for our customers.

“It is never our intention to offend and we are sorry if any has been caused by this advert.

“We will not publish it again.”

But not everyone was offended by the advert — with one social media user suggesting: “Religion causes offence to many too. Shall we ban that?”

Another said: “Like it or not the Easter is also a secular holiday as well as a religious one. Most are travelling to families rather than to church.”

It comes after chocolate makers Cadbury and Nestle were slammed in the UK for removing the word ‘Easter’ from their chocolate eggs.

But both companies insisted it simply wasn’t the case and the word Easter still appears on many of their egg packs.

This story is based on an article first published in The Sun and is reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Britain’s Tesco supermarket chain criticised for Good Friday ad