Volkswagen changes gear after previously defending an ad it now accepts as racist.
The video published on his German Instagram and Facebook
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The beads showed a pair of oversized white hands that seemed to be pushing and pulling a black man from a yellow VW Golf 8 car packed on a street. The ad was supposed to mimic popular social media videos of someone who appears to be controlled by someone else like a puppet, but something was definitely lost in the translation.
In addition, one of the white hands threw the black man into a cafe called “Petit Colon”, which translates to “Little Settler” from French to English, or “Little Colonist” from German to English , the BBC reported.
German television has also noted that the letters that begin to appear on the screen first define “neger”, which can be used as the German equivalent of the word n, before merging with the slogan “Der Neue Golf” or “The New Golf”. . “
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The online response was quick, with a lot on Twitter
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share the recorded clips and screenshots of the deleted ad and call Volkswagen’s roots in the German Nazi Party.
The German automaker initially replied that it was “surprised and shocked that our Instagram story could be so misunderstood” on Instagram, the BBC reported. But on Wednesday, he withdrew the ad and offered a long, formal apology for admitting the place was racist.
“We are posting a racist video ad on Volkswagen’s Instagram channel,” wrote VW sales and marketing director Jürgen Stackmann and group diversity manager Elke Heitmüller in a Twitter and shared statement on LinkedIn on Wednesday. “We understand the public outrage at this. Because we are also horrified”
“On behalf of Volkswagen AG, we apologize to the general public for this film,” said the statement. as translated by Reuters “And we especially apologize to those who feel personally hurt by racist content because of their own history.” Here it is in full:
Volkswagen USA published on its social networks that the content of the advertisement was “unacceptable on several levels” and that “our colleagues’ advertisement was in bad taste and did not accurately reflect our views or values”. We sincerely apologize to any offended person and anyone who has seen it. “