Hitler Does Not Make A Good Spokesperson
August 23, 2007
Hell Pizza, a chain operating in New Zealand, has had complaints about its new billboards that feature Hitler saluting a pizza with the quote “It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell.” Nope. Not kidding. They’ve had to remove the placements. One was replaced with the chain’s most famous campaign featuring Pope Benedict saying “Hell is real and eternal.”
The Auckland ad agency responsible for the debacle is Cinderella. What is going on in New Zealand? What’s with these names? Kirk MacGibbon, pictured below, who works for the agency said yesterday he had received complaints from Jewish citizens leaving in Auckland. “We hoped we could get away with people seeing Hitler with a piece of pizza would be funny. We do recognize there were some horrendous things done and if people are not seeing it as lampooning, we are dealing with a slightly different animal and we will back down,” MacGibbon said.
Ya think? Sophomoric jokes, boob, etc – that’s all fine. We understand that being provocative is hard to pull off. It’s a very fine line that not everyone rides successfully. However, Cinderella is out of its mind to think that Hitler could ever be funny in an advertising campaign of this nature.
The agency and Hell Pizza are both known for outlandish advertising like the George Bush billboard above. Or, consider their recent condom mailout to promote the chain’s Lust pizza, which attracted 685 complaints. The ASA regularly rules that the brand and the agency breach standards of decency and social responsibility.
