/ 25 March 2012

Hitler shampoo advert has critics foaming

A Turkish shampoo commercial featuring Adolf Hitler has drawn outrage from Jewish groups worldwide and calls for it to be withdrawn immediately.

“It’s totally unacceptable to make use of Hitler, the most striking example of cruelty and savagery …” said the Turkish Jewish Community in a statement, blasting the 12-second ad that has been aired since last week.

The commercial for Biomen, a men’s shampoo, shows a gesticulating Hitler deliver an enthusiastic speech, urging male customers to buy the product that is “a 100 percent male shampoo.”
“If you are not wearing a woman’s dress, you should not use her shampoo either,” he says.

Jewish organisations in Turkey have asked the advertising agency to pull the commercial.

On an international level, the United States-based Anti-Defamation League which fights anti-semitism said it was “repulsed”.

Using Hitler “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,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of ADL and a Holocaust survivor, in a statement.

“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.” — Sapa-AFP