Dubai Gym Uses Nazi Death Camp Image to Entice People Who Want to Lose Weight
A tasteless Auschwitz ad for a gym in Dubai is getting attention around the world. Phil Parkinson, the gym's owner, who apologized on Facebook and Twitter after the ad went viral, also says the ad was a success:
“A huge number people have researched or Googled… our YouTube channel has shot up, our [Facebook] group page has got an hundred extra members in minutes and we have had about five times as many enquiries as before. It has got to the point I am nervous that I can’t cater for demand.”
It makes me sick that someone could profit from such a lack of sensitivity. Gross.
Posted by: M | Jan 6, 2012 1:27:54 PM
The Facebook page now has Phil Parkinson saying someone else created the logo and posted it. That update is posted directly above a comment where Parking confirms that an interview he did confirms that the ad is his and that his ad agency team is to blame (http://www.newzglobe.com/article/20120104/interview-circuit-factory-over-offensive-campaign).
There's some major track-covering going here.
Posted by: Elsewhere | Jan 6, 2012 1:32:11 PM
It has "got to the point" that you should kill yourself. I hate emoticons and abbreviations, but really---WTF?
Posted by: Paul R | Jan 6, 2012 1:32:11 PM
Meant to include Circuit Factory's Facebook link, too.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/circuitfactory/
Posted by: Elsewhere | Jan 6, 2012 1:33:21 PM
seriously tasteless......heck, why not show pictures of dead people who died of anorexia? WTF!
Posted by: Gay American | Jan 6, 2012 2:59:06 PM
This is perhaps the most offensive thing I've seen in quite a while, and certainly the most offensive gym membership ad EVER.
Posted by: The Milkman | Jan 6, 2012 3:00:09 PM
Attention doesn't translate into paid memberships, and the real downside is that if any people are attracted by this ad, he'll have that kind of person as a customer.
Posted by: Mike | Jan 6, 2012 3:26:05 PM
it's Dubai. they're not courting a Jewish or gay clientele.
Posted by: doug | Jan 6, 2012 3:57:46 PM
@Doug: great point. I guess they're just courting Nazis, so it's OK?
Posted by: Paul R | Jan 6, 2012 4:20:24 PM
Phil Parkinson is a jackass. Best to avoid his gym.
Posted by: jason | Jan 6, 2012 4:26:28 PM
classy ad is classy...
@gay american: They died from starvation, not anorexia, which is a mental illness.
Posted by: B | Jan 6, 2012 4:41:30 PM
The 2nd word in your piece is a word I have been embracing lately: "tasteless". Just because someone can do or say something, doesn't mean that it is good taste to do so. I find this is such the case here in America (and in Dubai in the ad).
Posted by: Jim | Jan 6, 2012 6:54:22 PM
I thought it was pretty funny, even as a gay German. You can't take everything so serious. It's just an ad and obviously intended as a joke. But Americans love to get offended. So enjoy the ranting I guess?
Posted by: Alex | Jan 6, 2012 8:05:50 PM
Alex, as a "gay German", you should know better. Time to do a little study on the horror created by your grandparents.
Posted by: Mark M | Jan 7, 2012 1:54:25 AM
Alex, if you truly are a German citizen, then you should be familiar with the term "historic responsibility."
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/06__Foreign__Policy__State/05__Historic__Responsibility/__Historic__Responsibility.html
Posted by: Kwame A. River | Jan 7, 2012 10:23:01 AM
Absolutely disgusting.
Posted by: J. Page | Jan 8, 2012 3:33:20 PM