Comcast customers watching the sermon were interrupted at around 2 a.m., when the GGW ad was accidentally aired.
A spokesman for the cable company said the commercial was inadvertently aired due to a test of the Emergency Alert System, during which the channel airs regular programming — in this case the “Girls Gone Wild’s Search for the Wildest Bar in America” DVD advertisement was part of that regularly scheduled programming.
“We may have tapped into a whole new market,” Francis said. “It seems that many of the same people interested in the Pope’s message are also interested in ours.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that while the commercial was broadcast to the entire local area, only one person called to complain.
Francis said he was pleasantly surprised by the healthy increase in sales due to the Vatican broadcast, and says he was “happy to have shared an audience with the Pope.”