Wednesday, July 19, 2006

New York Mets: Faith Healer Crusade Ad Pulled [J. Mark English]

NEW YORK (AP) -- A TV advertisement for a faith healer's event showing Mets third baseman David Wright has been pulled from the air, the team said.

The ad, which aired during the Mets' broadcast Saturday, was made without the team's permission and through the misuse of a press credential, the club said in a news release. The man who put together the ad was credentialed to do TV and radio reports and was not authorized to use the Mets' logo in a commercial, a spokesman for the team said Tuesday.
In the ad, Wright invites the viewers to attend the "Salvation Miracles Revival Crusade" with Dr. Jaerock Lee at Madison Square Garden this month.
I believed that I was accommodating an agency which had been authorized by the Mets," Wright said in the release. "... Religion is purely a private matter and I would never endorse one religion over another. For anyone who was offended by the commercial please accept my sincerest apology."
Wright was approached at Shea Stadium and thought it was cleared by the organization because the man was on the field, the team said.