Shampoo ad featuring Hitler goes off the air
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
In the ad, Hitler says ‘If you are a man, you have to use this shampoo.’
The representative of advertising agency M.A.R.K.A, which produced a shampoo commercial using Adolf Hitler to promote their product, said they stopped running the commercial due to society’s intense reaction.Company owner Hulusi Derici told the Hürriyet Daily News they stood behind their commercial, but decided to stop running it after the backlash.
“If Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was giving a speech instead of Adolf Hitler in the commercial, people would to react as if we were mocking him. When it is Hitler, they say we are promoting [him],” Hulusi Derici told the Daily News yesterday.
Derici said the ad was making fun of Hitler and not praising him.
“Several Jewish Turkish citizens sent us e-mails criticizing the ad and we decided to take it off the air,” he said. However, Derici added that the ad had been successful because it had attracted wide attention from the public and the media.
Meanwhile, Yeşim Ulusu, an assistant professor from Bahçeşehir University criticized the ad and said such provocative ads should be evaluated by an ethics committee.
“This male-dominated commercial is offensive and sexist. I do not see any connection between maleness and Hitler. This is not fun; this is evil,” Ulusu told the Daily News. Ulusu said the ad was also problematic for insulting women. Turkey’s Jewish community also condemned the ad in a statement on March 26. United States based the Anti-Defamation League also condemned the company for the ad.
