WIESENTHAL CENTER GRATIFIED THAT COSMETICS  COMPANY DROPS CONTROVERSIAL “NAZI” AD

 The Simon Wiesenthal Center today responded to reports saying that Korean cosmetics company Coreana has dropped, after protests from the Center and the Israeli Embassy, a controversial TV ad that depicts a model in Nazi-like military garb. The ad’s tagline read, “Even Hitler didn’t have the East and West”

"We are gratified that Coreana has decided to do the right thing,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. “We remain very concerned that too many young Koreans lack important basic information about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Holocaust,” he added.

The Center last year protested a similar incident with anti-Semitic imagery in a popular Korean comic book series. In both the comic book and cosmetics ad controversies, Rabbi Cooper also offered to work with Korean partners to educate the Koreans about the Nazi era.

 
        The Simon Wiesenthal Center today protested the latest usage of Nazi imagery in Korean popular culture, this time in the form of an ad for Coreana, one of the largest cosmetic companies in Korea. The ad (which can be seen at this link depicts a young model in a Nazi officer’s uniform posing as the sounds of gunfire and artillery shells blast in the background. The ad’s tagline reads, “Even Hitler didn’t have the East and West.” The Center urged Coreana to immediately cancel the campaign.

         “Frankly put, these images and references are insult to the memory of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, when 6 million  innocent Jews were systematically murdered and the millions of other innocents who perished at the hands of the Nazi regime, its SS and military,” wrote Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of  the Wiesenthal Center, in a letter to Coreana’s Chairman Sang-Ok Yu and its President Chan-Won Park, adding that, “…survivors of those atrocities are outraged that their suffering at the hand of these racist murderers is being mocked by such a campaign.” Cooper reminded the company that the Jewish and Korean people have much in common historically, especially in the atrocities they both suffered during WWII and thus the Center “can only assume that such a campaign was mistakenly undertaken.”

        In the recent past, the Wiesenthal Center protested similar instances of Nazi and anti-Semitic themes in Korean bars, nightclubs and advertisements. It  has also offered to worked with education officials to ensure a broader understanding about the Holocaust and the Jewish people be part of school curriculums. Last year, the Center brought to public attention the use of classic Jewish conspiracies in a popular book about the United States aimed at young Koreans. The book’s publishers recalled the book and pledged to remove any anti-Semitic images and canards from future editions. 

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        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 an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
 
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