Edeka: Christmas Commercial

Jung von Matt creates a brilliant Christmas commercial for German supermarket chain Edeka. Again.
It is not so funny but at least it is not cynical like in 2015.

The ad is in German, but you can set on the English subtitles (click play and click on CC button).

One of the criticisms of the new Edeka commercial is the car license plate: In neo-Nazi circles, the “SS” stands for the former Nazi organization that was responsible among other things for the administration of concentration camps.

The approaching Volvo in the spot carries the number plate “MU-SS 420”. At first sight, you can see the word “must”, which should underline the video content and the song: “Must still this, must still that,” says the first line of the song. A few settings later the number plate SO-LL 3849. But what have all the letter and number combinations with Nazi symbols to do?

In Manager magazine speaks extremism expert Sabine Bamberger-Stemmann about the symbolism: “The letters SS are forbidden precisely because of the reference to the Nazi period in Germany in the car license plate. Since this is forbidden, it is not acceptable to use it in a commercial, even if it is a fictitious mark. “Also the number” 420 “can be misunderstood: as” Four-Twenty “, or 20.4. Read, the figures fall to the birthday of Adolf Hitler. The number 84 is supposedly a code for “Heildeutschland”. Because “H” is the eighth and “D” is the fourth letter in the alphabet. For Bamberger-Stemmann it is clear that this can not be a coincidence: “This means, in right circles, antisemitism.”

Edeka responded by now. Gernot Kasel, Head of Department Staff and media communication at Edeka said: “The ‘MU-SS’ license is a fantasy mark, based on the title song in our spot. We regret it, if a wrong impression was aroused here. This is by no means our intention. ”

Edeka can no longer stop the reactions in the social media: under the Hashtag #Zeitschenken, and #Edeka is no longer just talking about the peaceful message, but also about the alleged Nazi symbolism.