By Chris Wright
Multi-national detergent pedlars Proctor & Gamble have been forced to remove their Ariel washing powder from supermarket shelves in Germany after it was noted that the special World Cup packaging had certain ‘Nazi’ connotations.
The box, designed to resemble a German national shirt, featured the number ’88’ in reference to the amount of washes (83, plus another five free) customers are able to get out of the amount of powder in the special packet.
Unfortunately, the number 88 is a well-known covert reference to “Heil Hitler” (as ‘H’ is the eighth letter of the alphabet) and widely used by Neo-Nazi groups across Europe.
It has also been noted that the name on the back of the shirt, while obviously just the brand of washing powder, bears a close resemblance to the word “arier’, which is the German word for the Aryan race.
We won’t even get started on the “new concentration” boasted about on top of the box.
Upon being notified of the unfortunate design gaffe, Proctor & Gamble immediately pulled all stock from the shelves, cancelled all future deliveries and issued a humble apology via their Facebook page:
“P&G is committed to the values of tolerance, respect, diversity and humanity. We regret if people came to see the wrong associations and we resolutely dissociate ourselves from any right-wing (Nazi) body of thought.”
Oopsy-daisy.
(Via Eurosport)