Hasta La Creative!

You wouldn't think Jesus would be too concerned about his investment portfolio these days, but online trading service Kapitall has tapped Him as a spokesman anyway in a campaign featuring "revolutionary" historic figures.

In a series of spots that went live today, Jesus cracks jokes about crucifixion while Che Guevara cooks frittatas and Genghis Khan showers himself with coins. Backed by a $1 million media spend, the online ads also include Leonardo da Vinci (with nude lounging boy toy) and Cleopatra (with frond-waving boy toy).

But clearly it's the depiction of Jesus that's bound to arouse the most consternation. In a second spot, not yet posted, Jesus says he learned about Kapitall when God found the site and yelled "JESUS CHRIST!"

"Kapitall, and our newly launched advertising campaign, is about being revolutionary," Kapitall CMO Pascal Ehrsam tells AdFreak in an email. "The brand campaign is not meant to be offensive, but to give a nod to some of history's notable icons. Comprising many ethnicities and religions, Kapitall is made up of people from all over the world. We have great respect and admiration for all, even as we strive to entertain."

The campaign was created by agency Swell, with media planning handled by PM Digital. It will run through the summer on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo and Gawker Network, generating an estimated 50 million impressions per month.

Check out the first Jesus spot below and more from the campaign after the jump.

If there's one thing that can finally bring America together on this whole abortion issue, it's definitely a blasphemous video of Sarah Silverman hanging out with her feminist bestie, Jesus Christ. 

In her new five-minute clip, Silverman bonds with Jesus over an NCIS marathon, a sinfully good back rub and a few zingers, like when the Messiah quips that life doesn't begin at conception, but at 40. 

The video promotes "V to Shining V," a national reproductive-rights pride day scheduled for Sept. 28. Rallies are planned for all 50 state capitals, with Silverman appearing in Concord, N.H.

Silverman has tread this progressive political path before, appearing in outrageous clips that draw predictable, polarized responses. Her screeds continue to spark indignant hand-wringing from conservatives, and she seems to be emboldened by her critics each time.

No matter how disrespectful her presentation (and really, in a world of South Park and Family Guy, this stuff is pretty tame), the coverage and commentary she receives in conservative quarters can be so hateful that it makes her content look all the more benign and compelling by comparison. Ironically, the blowback bolsters these campaigns; each anonymous anti-Semitic barb or crass expression of "regret" that Silverman herself hadn't been aborted serves to strengthen her hand.

Of course, her controversial approach ensures she'll always just be preaching to the choir. Believing she'll gain many (or any) converts would take a great leap of faith.

Via Mediaite.

Warning: Some language in this video is NSFW.

The evangelicals at JesusTattoo.org are drawing predictably polarized responses for billboards around Lubbock, Texas, that show Christ covered in tattoos (reading "outcast," "jealous" and "addicted," among other things) and a provocative online video (below) that casts the Messiah as a basement tattoo artist. The campaign is a very broad modern metaphor for the Christian idea of Jesus suffering for the sins of others so they might be saved. (It's also the second coming in recent months of Christ as a hipster. Good lord!)

In the video, Jesus changes his customers' negative tattoos into positive ones. For example, a middle-aged man with "depressed" tattooed on his wrist (heavy symbolism for potential suicide) leaves with the word "confident" there instead. At day's end, when he's finally alone, an exhausted Christ removes his shirt, and we see his body covered with the negative phrases he removed from his customers. "Jesus's love is transformative," explains a spokesperson for JesusTattoo.org. "No matter what you've been marked with, faith in Him and love for others will transform us."

Critics, including older Texans interviewed about the billboards by Austin station KEYE-TV, blast the concept as "derogatory" and "blasphemous," though younger Texans have reacted in a more positive way. Since teens and young adults generally love tattoos, the generational divide isn't surprising. The campaign is certainly spreading the word, with the clip's YouTube views—130,000 in about two weeks—ascending since press coverage began in earnest a few days ago.

Personally, I find the premise quite moving, and as valid an updating of New Testament themes as Jesus Christ Superstar was a few generations ago. That said, the tattoo concept works better in the video than on the billboards. The latter, glimpsed briefly from passing cars, can easily be misinterpreted, while the six-minute video affords time for explanation and contemplation. Still, it's not entirely successful, at times threading the needle between artistic license and unintentional goofiness, particularly in the awkward overkill of the closing narration ("Tell Him … that you want Him to be your friend!") and the fact that the actor in some shots resembles Geico's caveman or a freaky Jim Morrison.

I kept praying Zombie Boy would show up and give the Savior a real challenge … and maybe trigger Armageddon right on the spot. Of course, some lost souls are beyond redemption.