Sometimes companies seem to make intentionally offensive ads designed to make a big splash and get a lot of attention after which the company apologizes and pulls the ad. Coca-Cola just made one of these for Christmas, although maybe unintentionally (?).
If Mercedes wanted to make one of these offensive ads to get attention and then apologize for it, all they’d have to do is show historical footage of Hitler being driven around in his Mercedes-Benz 770 and have the announcer say: “Hitler was right: Mercedes-Benz is the greatest car in the world!” And then, as a tag, they could show Japanese Emperor Hirohito being driven in his Mercedes-Benz 770 and say: “Even Hirohito agrees!”
(It’s amazing to me how Mercedes has managed to escape the Hitler stigma. You know that if Hitler had liked any other product, like, say, marshmallow fluff or something, that product would have been drummed out of business due to guilt-by-association. But somehow Mercedes has escaped. Maybe it’s because Mercedes really is the greatest car in the world, and we should buy one despite Hitler’s fondness for them?)
This is the Mercedes-Benz 770:
This is Hitler in his Mercedes-Benz:
And this is the Coca-Cola Christmas controversy commercial:
And this is what happened to the Coca-Cola ad agency after people saw the ad:
.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150414095918){kind=link}
