Wiesenthal Center Urges Japanese Retailer to Remove “Nazi” Uniform Costume from Stores
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| Read Unilever CEO Letter of Apology to SWC's Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper |
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December 28, 2010
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling on Unilever to drop a Japanese ad campaign for its Ponds Cream that features a woman dressed in a Nazi SS uniform, replete with the notorious “Totenkopf"(death’s head) symbol. The campaign could be seen on billboards in subways and other prominent locations throughout Japan.
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In a letter to Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Michael Treschow, Unilever’s Chairman, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center, expressed outrage at theuse of the SS uniform. “As you know, the SS were Hitler’s murderous shock troops who wrought murder and mayhem across occupied Europe and whose members ran all of the concentration and deathcamps where millions of innocent Jews and other Europeans were tortured and slaughtered,” he wrote, adding, “It is almost beyond comprehension why anyone would seek the find the esthetic withinthe history’s worst evil.”|
Rabbi Cooper urged the Unilever executives to immediately cancel the campaign and advised that the company’s representatives and advertising executives in Japan receive a basic education aboutWWII and the Nazi Holocaust.
Last month, Don Quijote, the Japanese retail chain, removed Nazi uniform costumes from its shelves following a protest by the Wiesenthal Center.
For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sentdirect to your Twitter page or mobile device.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is anNGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).