I can never remember favourites, but this is the one I heard most recently…
After a particularly creative brainstorming session, a Starbucks advertising executive sets up a meeting with a senior cardinal in the Vatican.
“Your Eminence,” he says, “I have an exciting proposition for you. Starbucks will pay the Church 20 million euros if you will agree to change one word in the Lord’s Prayer. We want you to change the line ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘Give us this day our daily coffee’. It’s a winner – our research shows that the Lord’s Prayer is considered outmoded, like stodgy bakery products, while coffee has a fresh young image!”
“Preposterous,” says the cardinal, “the Lord’s Prayer is a sacred institution. We could not possibly consider such a change!”
“All right, 50 million,” says the Starbucks man. “Whaddya say?”
“The Church is not for sale!” comes the reply.
“OK, final offer. 100 million euros. Come on, it’s just one word!”
“Well,” says the cardinal, “that would allow us to do an awful lot of good work… and as you say it is only one word, and I’m partial to a cup myself. OK, it’s a deal.”
So at the next Vatican meeting the cardinal addresses the Pope: “Your Excellency, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the Church coffers have been boosted by 100 million euros thanks to some business I have negotiated.”
“Marvellous,” says the Pope. “And the bad news?”
“We’ve lost the Hovis contract.”