« Case knives ad fudges the laws of nature | Main | How does an old pinup sell fuel efficiency? »

Hat company breaks Germans' Hitler taboo What's the difference between Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin? "It's the hat," suggests the ad above, for Hut Weber hats. Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports that the ad “is groundbreaking because the taboo of using Hitler in any other context but a historical one would have been unthinkable until now.” Chaplin’s family might not be that impressed. And creatively, the ad might be less groundbreaking, as the same idea was employed in this campaign for a Belgian optician. —Posted by Tim Nudd

April 15, 2008 in Nudd | Permalink

Comments

There's a new cartoon series on the web about Hitler, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptq39zbsxms

Hitler kitsch?

Posted by: Adam | Apr 15, 2008 11:18:29 AM

Is that even a real ad? They discuss intenet forum reaction, but where did it actually run?

Posted by: Mike | Apr 15, 2008 12:02:34 PM

It ran in "Hat Fancy."

Posted by: | Apr 17, 2008 2:39:44 PM

The hat company probably exists, but I doubt that they hired the agency for a job like this. The idea is one of these gold-ideas agencys have and need a company for to get it out there in order to win some prizes. So it probably didnt run much longer than ... well ... once.

And, being German I can tell that the Hitler taboo has been broken before. There have been several movies and also ads "breaking" this taboo lately. I feel like it's en vogue right now to break it again and again, although I thought it could only be broken once. Maybe someone should mend it, so it can be broken once more ...
Ah, whatever, in my generation we don't do taboos anymore anyway.

see this:
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/comedy_central_adolf

Nonetheless it is a very good idea well executed by a good agency. Chapeau!

Posted by: Highner | Apr 22, 2008 8:01:52 AM

Post a comment

Name:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.