Shampoo Ad features Adolf Hitler

[Thorlifter]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLzxuiQtzqE

A new Turkish shampoo commercial featuring video of Adolf Hitler declaring the hair rinse a product for "real men" has been met with formal complaints from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and others who say it is deeply offensive.

"We follow with sadness and regret the use of Hitler figure in the Biomen Men Shampoo advertisement, which was brought to the screen in recent days," the Turkish Jewish Community said in a statement. "It's totally unacceptable to make use of Hitler, the most striking example of cruelty and savagery. ... Using him in an advertisement for whatever reason is an unacceptable situation and could not be accepted by us at all. This is beyond all ethics as well as a huge insult to human rights."

The ad has been running on Turkish television stations for about a week, AFP reports.

In the ad from shampoo maker "Biomen," archived video of former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is played in which he is seen yelling and gesturing wildly with his hands, while a fictional text translates his message across the screen.

"If you are not wearing a woman's dress, you should not use her shampoo either," Hitler says in the ad. "Here it is, a real mens' shampoo, Biomen." The video then cuts to a picture of the shampoo bottle with the on-screen message, "Real men use Biomen."

ADL National Director, and Holocaust survivor Abraham H. Foxman called the advertisement "disgusting" in a statement released by the group.

"The use of images of the violently anti-Semitic dictator who was responsible for the mass murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust to sell shampoo is a disgusting and deplorable marketing ploy," Foxman said. "It is an insult to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, those who survived, and those who fought to defeat the Nazis.

 

[Florence]

I have to admit he makes a good point.

 

[evangilder]

Unbelievable that any company would use Hitler's image for advertising.

 

[A4K]

Funny in it's own way, just not PC of course...

 

[meatloaf109]

I love humor, if you can't make fun of something you have lost the greatest weapon us humans have.
I didn't really see the humor in that ad. The Turks have had a strange relationship with the Germans for quite some time now. And, of course, the Turkish culture is a tad bit male centered.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The Turks have had a strange relationship with the Germans for quite some time now.

Yeah, and the Germans can't get rid of them! They keep coming to Germany in droves.

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Could it have been inspired by the popularity of the rash of You Tube mis-translated scenes from the film "Downfall?"

For example:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSD0Mjt64LQ

There are evidently dozens of these with similar "What's up Tiger Lilly" type mis-dubbed-translations, including one wherein hitler becomes upset when he "discovers" "the final solution." Hard as that may be to imagine as the basis for any kind of humor: ironic or otherwise.

 

[A4K]

I think I enjoyed it mainy because it reminded me of the Monty Pythons Hitler sketches Damn they were funny, especially the footage of the Nazi-party rally with the english subtitles:

Hitler: 'My dog has no nose'
Fanatic crowd: 'How does he smell?'
Hitler: 'Awful'

 

[meatloaf109]

I think I enjoyed it mainy because it reminded me of the Monty Pythons Hitler sketches Damn they were funny, especially the footage of the Nazi-party rally with the english subtitles:

Hitler: 'My dog has no nose'
Fanatic crowd: 'How does he smell?'
Hitler: 'Awful'

That was funny, the "killer joke" bit

 

[A4K]

That's the one Paul!

Also the one where Hitler, Himmler and Von Ribbentrop are planning the invasion of Britain from a granny-flat in Minehead...

 

[oldcrowcv63]

OK.. at the risk of killing everyone on the forum, here it is:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I3zCQzZx68

Also the one where Hitler, Himmler and Von Ribbentrop are planning the invasion of Britain from a granny-flat in Minehead...

Is this it?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJpDxlI8H0

 

[RabidAlien]

Well, there's a difference between using humor and making fun of Hitler and the Nazi party (fear, after all, is a form of respect, and both deserve neither). Spoofing and mis-translating, IMO, is fine. Make fun of the bassturd. As for advertising, though...the company is using Adolf Hitler to PROMOTE their product. Not to pull down a competitor's product ("Adolf Hitler used shampoo from X company, therefore real men would use ours instead"), but to sell their product. That means that they assume that there is something in common with Hitler, and that the masses who are targeted for their product will feel something in common with him as well.

Epic. Advertising. Fail.

 

[razor1uk]

I think company X would sue company A for insuating that the Farting Corpral endorses their product; causing just as much controversy, although most normal people would get the joke easier and just ignore it, but as to highlight what you intended in your post, its is apt enough.
Maybe if they said "Real Man use our product, Hitler didn't...." then even any religous nutters couldn't complain.

I completely agree with that fear is also a (minor/inferred) form of respect i.e; submissiveness, so those who really fear all talk of mentioning, discussing related history are secretly (and hopefully are unknowingly) honouring him - makes some modern day similarities of some actions seem quite a jux-ta-position of the highest hypocracy to those whom suffered.

It also says abit about the back-lash to refusing Turkish membership to the EU, now they've been refused, spurred on by unspoken WWIV - The War On Terror (unspoken WWIII is/was the Cold War), secularism is losing to religiousism.
Plus with modern mass communications the will for basic human and national rights, which is growing in the world, irrespective of old national/state opinions, ideologies religious dogmatic powers etc, hence has led to the percieved ok-ness to this advert by its parent company with its nation untill it was rightly addressed by those within it.

I type my musings not to inflame, but to illiminate a different angle to view upon the scene, so to speak.

 

[A4K]

OK.. at the risk of killing everyone on the forum, here it is...

Those are them mate!

As for this ad, I guess it will go to ground quickly enough.

 

[brucejscott]

Python=funny. Whoring Hitler for a dollar=disgusting