Turkish shampoo ad featuring Hitler sparks outrage

[1]

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Turkish shampoo commercial featuring Adolf Hitler has drawn outrage from Jewish groups worldwide and calls for it to be withdrawn immediately.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." The ad also appears on YouTube.

"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.

In a press statement quoted by Hurriyet daily newspaper, the Chief Rabbinate of Turkey, said: "Despite the discussion we had with the owner of the advertising agency in which we shared our sadness and disappointment, we regretfully noticed that the commercial in question still appears in the media."

"We would like to make a reminder once again that it’s totally unacceptable to make use of Hitler – the most striking example of cruelty and savagery in history, who caused the death of millions of people with his perverse mentality and twisted ideology – in order to make a difference or raise awareness in a commercial."

"This is beyond all ethics, as well as a huge insult to human rights," Haleva said in a written statement. "We believe and expect that the necessary sensitivity will be shown and that a correction will be made soon," Turkey's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Haleva said.