A German Aids awareness group has come under fire for posting
an online video that starts off with a young couple having
sex in an apartment before revealing the male to be a
grinning Adolf Hitler.
Its closing message: "Aids is a mass murderer." On Tuesday, a
prominent German Jewish group and Aids prevention advocates
demanded the ad be withdrawn.
"It is disgusting and we're asking the producers of the
campaign to pull it back," said Joerg Litwinschuh of German
Aids Assistance, an awareness group.
He said the ad, commissioned by Regenbogen, German for
rainbow, seemed designed for little more than shock value and
was offensive to people who have HIV.
"We denounce this ad. I can say that absolutely," said Volker
Mertens, a spokesman for another group, the German Aids
Foundation.
Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of
Jews in Germany, issued a statement calling the ad "a
defamation and mockery" of Holocaust victims.
"Apparently the initiators and producers of this campaign are
only concerned, without consideration for other's emotions,
with provocation based on this slogan: Hitler sells," Kramer
said.
On Monday, Regenbogen deputy head Heiko Schoessling told The
Associated Press that the ad would run on German TV and in
movie theatres.
He said the "mass murder" campaign would also include radio
spots, music videos, print ads and posters featuring former
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and former Soviet leader Josef
Stalin.
The next day, as criticism mounted, Regenbogen spokesman Jan
Schwertner said plans for the video and the broader campaign
were not final. Talks with TV stations and theaters are
continuing, he said, but would not disclose when and where
the ads would appear.
German broadcaster RTL said it was contacted by Regenbogen
about the ad but decided against airing it. "After having
talked to child welfare authorities, RTL decided to not
screen the campaign," said Cordelia Wagner.
She said RTL made the decision last week after considering
"the entire context" of the ad, meaning both the use of
Hitler's image as well as the explicit nudity and sexual
content.
Schwertner defended Regenbogen's decision to use Hitler's
likeness, saying the aim was to "give a face" to HIV.
"It was in no way our intent to depict those with Aids or
(who are) HIV positive as mass murderers. We wanted to give
the virus that kind of a face," Schwertner told reporters.
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