Even angels will fall

While watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament last weekend, my 15-year-old son and I saw a commercial that he immediately dubbed as "disgusting."

It's an ad for Axe Excite, a new line of men's fragrance. In case you've missed it, here's how it goes (see also the video clip below): A handful of angels-in beautiful, haloed female form-drop from heaven with a thud, startling local townsfolk in what appears to be a small Italian village. Each of them eventually finds her way to what has apparently drawn them to earth: a handsome young man standing by his motorcycle. They gather around him, staring hard, and then, one by one, they grab their halos, thrusting them to the ground where they shatter like glass.

At that point the only words spoken in the commercial are voiced: "New Axe Excite. Even angels will fall."

It is a visually striking commercial, and it grabs your attention from the start. My first thought was not terribly cogent, something to the effect that I'd never seen a commercial quite like that. But my son's spontaneous, outraged reaction quickly brought me back to reality: "That's the most disgusting commercial I've ever seen." The message was quite simply that this young man's sex appeal (thanks to his scent) was so powerful that it caused angels to fall away from God. Angels chose him over God. Angels chose sex over obedience to God. Lust is stronger than love.

I know there will be readers who think I'm overreacting, but if you take a moment to think about it, it truly is an outrageous message. And perhaps I've missed it, but I haven't seen or read much reaction to it, except for on the American Family Association's One Million Moms website. They say it mocks Christianity, and they're right.