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Representatives from the Church of England appear to be up in arms over the advertising that is currently promoting the new Gunther Von Hagen show at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
The campaign, created by Access Advertising and Marketing, features one of Von Hagen’s plastinated corpses with the words ‘original, authentic, inspiring.’ It promotes Body Worlds 4: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, which is receiving its world premiere at MOSI. However, the church has come out in criticism of the campaign, partly because they concur with the Chief Medical Officer, who said that public images of Von Hagen’s work impact negatively on donations to the NHS and medical schools, and partly because they see the exhibition as ‘a freak show.’ As a spokesperson for the Diocese of Manchester noted: “ Not since the days of PT Barnum and the Victorian era has so much public money been spent on promoting a corpse show. “It looks very slick, but the advertising agency is treating dead people as ‘products’. I wonder if the man pictured gave his permission to be on a poster for a show that will take over £4 Million at the box office?” Last week the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, also asked MOSI and Body Worlds 4 to donate money to an ad campaign countering any adverse effect the show might have on people who otherwise may have been tempted to become organ donors. MOSI representatives wrote back to decline the approach. A website has now been set up by those campaigning against the work of Von Hagen (www.corpseshow.info). It features a petition to Downing Street and an alternative advertising poster called ‘return of the body snatchers.’ Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
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