The American Family Association Website reported that Taco Bell shut down its Cardcaptors promotion in response to complaints that the 'clow cards' from Cardcaptors are 'similar in appearance to tarot cards used in occult practices.'  The AFA, which has a conservative Christian political orientation, had its intrepid reporters scout out the Cardcaptors Website, where they found that while the 'clow cards' are not exactly tarot cards, 'the story behind the cartoon series resembles Eastern mythology.'  This resemblance was evidently strong enough, according to the AFA, to generate sufficient complaints to cause Taco Bell to end the promotion.

 

ICv2 ran a story about the Cardcaptors promotion a couple of weeks ago (see 'Taco Bell's Cardcaptors Promotion'), based on a press release from Taco Bell, in which we noted that the promotion was supposed to end January 30.  Since the first anti-Cardcaptors article did not appear until January 29, and the article announcing that the promotion had been halted was posted on February 1, the question of whether Taco Bell actually halted the promotion any sooner than planned remains open.

 

Conservative Christian groups have been campaigning vociferously against the Harry Potter books and movie, which 'present witchcraft in a positive light.'  Cardcaptors is certainly an easier target, since it doesn't have nearly the popularity of Harry Potter, but to rail against Cardcaptors because 'the story behind the cartoon series resembles Eastern mythology' appears to take the crusade against the occult and mystical to an entirely new level.  Is the Thor comic anathema because it 'resembles pre-Christian Norse mythology?'