Latching onto the 2004 movie Downfall to indulge in a melodramatic Hitler meme is one thing. (It’s not even really Hitler. It’s actor Bruno Ganz having an epic meltdown that’s been co-opted zillions of times now.) But using a photo of the real Hitler as a sales tool? For shame. New Form, a fashion boutique in Sicily, has papered the city with 18-foot-high posters of Hitler in a pink uniform—with a heart on his sleeve instead of a swastika—under the tagline, "Change style. Don’t follow your leader." Even if it made sense, it would still be offensive. Local politicians and the citizenry are outraged, naturally. The ad agency, according to HuffPo, says the campaign doesn’t cozy up to the infamous Nazi but instead makes fun of him. And hopefully makes a buck off him, to boot. It’s just all so distasteful and wrong. And maybe the start of a trend? HuffPo says Chinese communist leader Mao Tse Tung is New Form’s next poster boy. Let’s hope that’s a (horrible) joke.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley