Paddy Power have given ‘lapsed Catholics’ the chance to get in a quick confession before the Pope’s upcoming visit to Ireland in a new mischievous campaign. Creative agency, The Public House, helped create a giant drive thru confession box, built just outside of Phoenix Park in the days before the Pope’s first visit to the country since the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979.
The 40 foot box took 3 days to build and is situated near where Pope Francis is set to give an address to crowds potentially numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
“We based this idea on the insight that over 55% of people in Ireland haven’t been to confession in the past 10 years,” says Colin Hart, Founder and Creative Director of the Public House. “So we’re proud to work with Paddy Power to help with the backlog of confessions, whether it’s secretly cheering for the English in the World Cup or taking more than their share of bread during Storm Ophelia.”
The idea came from The Public House with a history of ‘stick it to the man’ ideas for Paddy Power. In the past year they have partnered with the bookmaker to create an apparition of the Virgin Mary at Knock Shrine to inspire Mayo in the All-Ireland Final, and installed a 30 foot gold statue of Virgil van Dijk outside Anfield to reflect what his record transfer fee would be worth in gold.
