From The Daily Telegraph:
The 18ft high posters of the Nazi leader advertise a line of clothing for young people and adorn street corners and bus stops in Palermo, Sicily’s biggest city.
The ads show the Fuhrer in a lurid pink uniform, with his swastika armband replaced with one bearing a bright red heart, above the slogan “Change Style – Don’t Follow Your Leader”.
Many local people say the advertising campaign is offensive and have called for the posters to be taken down.
A city councillor with the centre-Left Democratic Party, Rosario Filoramo, has protested to the mayor of Palermo.
“The use of an image of a person responsible for the worst chapters of the last century is offensive to our country’s constitutional principles and to the sensitivities of citizens,” he said.
A council official, Fabrizio Ferrandelli, said: “Having Hitler’s face on a poster… cannot be passed off as an innocent advertising message. Seeing these posters in front of schools is an embarrassment.” But the advertising agency which came up with the idea said critics of the campaign were over-reacting.
The Hitler poster was a tongue-in-cheek way of encouraging young people not to follow the crowd in their fashion choices.
Too much? Can Hitler ever be “tongue in cheek”? I have no problem with ridicule of course — the Fawlty Towers Hitler scene is genius…. Discuss away Threedonians.
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I don’t have a problem with it. The poster and the message mocks the Austrian corporal, not praises him, so I’m not seeing the big deal.
Same here… maybe the Italians are looking for something over which to get worked up? Who knew?
plus it’s a good excuse for a movie pun
I’m thinking up Rich’s alley, but take it down and substitute the pic with of Mussolini, the big Benito, see what whiners say. Sorry, was that too easy?
“Springtime, for Hitler, and Germany!
Autumn, for Poland, and France!”
Tim, thanks for reminding me of one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies! I think the ad is actually rather witty; trust the Progressives (of any nation) to turn it into a crisis.
I hope they follow up with ones of Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Ho and Castro.
(I like, and I think Rufus would appreciate, the Firesign Theater cover for “How Can You Be Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All”, which features the cast, Politburo style, in front of a poster labeled “All Hail Marx / Lennon.”
I have that album!! “Antelope Freeway, one-quarter mile…Antelope Freeway, one-fifteenth of a mile…”)
Raoul,
I think I used that image on a post many moons ago.
Obviously the Italian nationals don’t have a sense of humor in that regard. I can understand it to a degree. Italy was pretty much turned upside down because of Mussolini and his ties to Hitler. That part of the world was in total turmoil for nearly 3 decades because of all of it. So, I do sympathize. It comes easier to make humor over the jackboots when they’ve been soundly defeated, especially when we live in another part of the world that did not taste the sting of war on our own soil. I think Americans have always been criticized for our somewhat irreverent look at things in the humorous sense. If the humor were aimed in the direction of the Holocaust, and the Jews, then I would think the whole thing would be out of order.
Might finally give ‘em a subject for a new WWII-related documentary. That’s right, I said what needed to be said. Anyone knows somebody willing to fund a documentary on the millions of Eastern/Central Europeans, gypsies, Catholics and Russians affected by the Germans back then, y’all know where to find me.
I think the closest American analog would be somebody in a pink Klan hood. It would be funny, but people would be offended.
Call me stupid, but I just don’t get it. Are they saying Hitler was a f_g or something?
Lars is right — it is funny, but it’s just asking for trouble.
The Aryan Tsuper Men!
Would it be too much of a leap to think that they would have no problem wearing a Che’ shirt? What a bunch of tool-bags.
Raoul, Wankette: Thank goodness someone besides me remembers Firesign Theater!! Thumbs up!