Flashback: Patriotic Meat Poster Inspired By Nazi Propaganda Poster?
Posted in News on 23. Apr, 2009
If blogging had existed back in 1998, you can bet this story would have been all over the place. Granted, appearing in Newsweek was enough at the time for damage control to go into overdrive for Fleming Companies — an Oklahoma-based food wholesaler. Back in the spring of ‘98, they released an ad extolling the patriotic virtues of meat with a tall, blond cowboy holding onto the American flag. The posters were distributed to IGA, Thriftway, Piggly Wiggly, United Super and hundreds of other supermarkets across the country.
A college student, however, noticed something odd about the posters. Sure enough, they matched almost perfectly with a Hitler Youth poster from Nazi, Germany during World War II. The ad agency that created the campaign denied any inspiration from the Nazi version — claiming that the striking resemblance was only a coincidence. “We’re not trying to send out any subliminal Nazi messages” says spokesperson Cheryl Hudak.
Uh Huh. You be the judge. Needless to say, the posters were quickly pulled from supermarkets. I wonder if someone in the ad agency had a “beef” with America’s meat industry?
Ahh! Now I’m super conscious of my chin dimple!
Ha! Fine minds think along the same lines … I was plotting a post for this pic too!