CHICAGO (AP) – A trailer for a movie depicting the birth of Jesus played at a holiday bazaar Wednesday afternoon but went largely unnoticed by the lunch-going crowd, despite early city concerns that it represented paid advertising that could offend non-Christians.

A religious group showed the clips from “The Nativity Story” at the traditional German Christkindlmarket after the city dropped an objection to the display.

The trailer wasn’t displayed on anything fancy; the TV looked like one a teacher might turn on for a class of third-graders. The television had no sound, so viewers could only watch images flash across the screen.

The few passers-by who did pause to watch dismissed the trailer as advertising and moved on.

Joe Kessler called the display “a marketing ploy.”

“They’re doing it to try to get people to buy tickets,” Kessler, 25, said. “As you could say, that’s the American way – making money.”

New Line Cinema had agreed to pay $12,000 to Christkindlmarket organizers to continuously play the movie trailer at the bazaar.

Responding to the city’s concerns, the organizers and movie studio canceled their deal.

But an organization called Civil Liberties for Urban Believers, representing a group of Chicago churches, obtained a city permit Tuesday to show the movie trailer at its own display at the bazaar, said the group’s spokesman, Thomas Ciesielka.

Ciesielka said his group was able to secure a permit because its display isn’t commercial. The city risked violating religious speech statutes if they denied the request, he said.

Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the city’s office of special events, said she could provide no information on the decision.

New Line Cinema, a unit of Time Warner Inc., has provided no money to the church group or the bazaar, said Christina Kounelias, executive vice president of the film company.

She said the original decision to cancel the trailer was “probably well-intentioned.”

“In an effort to be politically correct they behaved incorrectly,” she said Tuesday.

Around the country, Christmas displays on public property have become an annual source of contention, forcing elected officials to approach them cautiously.

Last week, 14 plastic Christmas trees were restored at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after officials received assurances they wouldn’t be brought in to court. The trees had been removed because a Jewish rabbi threatened to sue over the lack of a menorah in the airport’s holiday display.

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Associated Press writer Nathaniel Hernandez contributed to this report.

AP-ES-12-20-06 2216EST