https://twitter.com/Gothamist/status/668890325864357888/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If we’ve learned anything from corporations struggling to buy the precious eye space that our heads gobble up, it’s that almost no boundaries exist in the marketing space. Sex sells. Violence sells. Depravity sells. Nazi symbols plastered all over the inside of a New York City subway train? Perhaps that one should be left alone.
Amazon Studio’s newest program, The Man in the High Castle, envisions an alternate reality where the Allied Powers lost World War II, and where Nazi Germany and Japan have colluded to take over the nation. It’s a high-concept premise based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, and it’s an enticing idea. Ripe for the imaginative landscape of television. But, as far as marketing concepts go, it’s befuddling that a room full of executives gave the “okay” to permitting the placement of Nazi symbology in a city with a high Jewish population, because, you know, the Holocaust and all.
42nd St shuttle to #TimesSquare covered in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan symbols for @amazon ad. Is this ok? pic.twitter.com/ysJ3m0UIPT
— Katherine Lam (@byKatherineLam) November 23, 2015
In this age of hypocrisy and extreme political correctness, it’s far too easy to say what is wrong with something (and actually not do anything about it… but that’s another discussion), but, that being said, this is just a very bad idea. A New York City MTA spokesman told Gothamist that there’s absolutely no problem with the ads:
The updated standards prohibit political advertisements Unless you’re saying that you believe Amazon is advocating for a Nazi takeover of the United States, then it meets the standards. They’re advertising a show.
Just because there are no laws against it doesn’t mean it’s okay. There are no laws against me cheating on my fiancee, but if I did, I’d be short one extremity. But, there is a caveat to this whole ordeal. The Nazi imagery used in the American flags in the pictures above are not authentic Nazi symbology, i.e., they were not actually created by the Nazis. Rather, it is a fictionalized twist on Nazi iconography, specifically the eagle which was adapted from the Romans. Still, it’s similar enough, and it does represent a class of humans who committed genocide. That still means something. Right?
(via Gothamist)
