At least one America Online user is charging that the company is using the name of God in vain in its marketing campaign for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), writes WorldNetDaily (via WebProNews). AOL recently launched a campaign with the tagline "I AM," a play on "IM" and a reshuffling of the letters in AIM. But "I AM" also happens to be one of the English translations of YHWH (as in Yahweh, or Jehovah), the self-proclaimed name of God.
In a harsh letter to AOL executives, user Ian Millar calls the slogan "blasphemy, a vulgar sin of offense…. Perhaps you have not read the Third Commandment, since they have removed it from so many public monuments in the last decade. But breaking it as a means of marketing your products offends the mind of everyone who worships Him," Millar wrote to AOL CEO Jonathan Miller and John Buckley, corporate communications officer.
"This new marketing idea is bad corporate policy. I implore you to change the name of your programs and rebuke the marketing team who came up with this vile idea. I will stop using AIM and urge all of my colleagues to convert to your competitors, if this is not changed very soon."
