[lbo-talk] Bell Canada ads feature punk wearing "Belsen Was a Gas" button (Sex Pistols), went up during Jewish New Year

[B.]

[Wow, companies are on a roll lately! I'm waiting for
Clorox Bleach to use Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being
White." -B.]

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2007/09/belsen-was-a-ga.html

‘Belsen was a gas’ not a great copy line

Bell Canada is begging forgiveness after featuring the
line “Belsen was a gas” on billboards that went up
during the Jewish New Year. The line, the title of a
Sex Pistols song, referring to Bergen-Belsen, the
German concentration camp, appeared in the ads on a
button worn by a young Japanese girl outfitted with
various punk-style accessories. Bell Canada officials
say they couldn’t read the words on the small proofs
they saw. “It’s a bad ad on any day, perhaps
particularly so this week,” says a spokesman. “It was
unintended. The reality is we would never knowingly
run an ad with an offensive slogan like that.” Here
are the Pistols playing the song live at one of their
last shows, in 1978.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9dvsqrWDXY4

—Posted by Tim Nudd

September 17, 2007 |