A 13-SECOND SHAMPOO ad has sparked controversy in Turkey as it features an emphatic speech by an angry Adolf Hitler.
The dubbed-over speech translates to, “If you are not wearing a woman’s dress, you should not use her shampoo either,” and “here it is, a real man’s shampoo.”
The ad has been labelled as disgusting by various Jewish groups. The US-based Anti-Defamation League said it was “repulsed” at the use of the film footage, while the Turkish Jewish Community said it was “totally unacceptable to make use of Hitler”.
The ad company M.A.R.K.A. was, undoubtedly, working off the premise that there’s no such thing as bad press.
“The use of images of the violently anti-Semitic dictator who was responsible for the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust to sell shampoo is a disgusting and deplorable marketing ploy,” said Holocaust survivor Abraham Foxman.
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. This video is just the latest example of the use of Holocaust imagery in some countries to sell commercial products, which has contributed to the trivialisation of and desensitisation to the unparalleled horrors of the Holocaust. There can never be any justifiable purpose for using the images of Hitler, Nazis or any other depiction of the Nazi killing machine to sell products or services.
Foxman said the airing of the ad in Turkey was particularly troubling given that the country has a proud tradition as a “haven for Jews”.
A statement from the Chief Rabbinate of Turkey condemned the commercial. He said he shared his “sadness and disappointment” over the ad with the owner of the agency.
“We would like to make a reminder once again that it’s totally unacceptable to make use of Hitler – the most striking example of cruelty and savagery in history, who caused the death of millions of people with his perverse mentality and twisted ideology – in order to make a difference or raise awareness in a commercial,” said Ishak Haleva. “We reprimand this mindset and emphasize the importance of a public apology in order to repair the damage that this commercial has caused to society’s conscience.”
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