An Italian TV ad showing nuns swapping altar bread for crisps during communion is under fire for blasphemy.

The 30-second spot by Amica Chips unfolds in a monastery, where nuns, realising the tabernacle is empty, use crisps instead. Set to Schubert’s Ave Maria, it ends with the mother superior munching on the crisps.

The Lorenzo Marini Group, responsible for the advert, explained that the campaign targeted a younger audience with "a strong British irony". But outraged Catholic viewers have accused the company of resorting to blasphemy to boost sales.

The leader of Catholic TV viewers Giovanni Baggio said the add “offends the sensitivity of millions of practising Catholics” and was “outrageous” because it “trivialises the comparison between the potato chip and the consecrated particle”.

He explain the ad is considered outrageous because it diminishes the significance of  the consecrated host.

“The commercial shows a lack of respect and creativity,” he added in a statement. “It is a sign of an inability to do marketing without resorting to symbols that have nothing to do with consumption and crunchy food.”

The Catholic newspaper, Avvenire, also condemned the ad, beginning an editorial with the statement: "Christ has been trivialized to the level of a potato chip, degraded and disparaged much like two millennia ago."