Phil Parkinson, gym owner, had one of those errors in judgement. He posted a new advertisement for his gym on facebook, with a snazzy new slogan.
The slogan works for me...'Circuit Factory...Kiss your calories goodbye' Not a bad slogan at all to put on a poster, paired with the correct image.
In this case, the correct image would be anything other than what he chose...a picture of the railroad tracks leading up to Auschwitz!
 |
| picture from www.newyork.cbslocal.com |
No, that's not an earthquake...it was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.
I'm not trying to be too high and mighty. It's entirely possible that at some point in my life, I have told a joke that would have offended someone, somewhere. I'm just not sure how you convince yourself that comparing your business to a place where 1.3 MILLION people died is a good idea.
YHGTBSM!
ReplyDeleteYeah it's bad-
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, the one where the expression "don't put down to malice where stupidity is more likely"..or something.
The guy probably just searched for 'factory' or something and didn't read the title of what he picked.
At least he didn't mention showers.
Nope, he later doubled down. He defended the ad by saying that they didn't intend to be offensive, it's just that his gym is just like a concentration camp for calories. I am not kidding.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thenational.ae/thenational/news/uae-news/dubai-fitness-firm-the-circuit-factory-apologises-over-auschwitz-joke
Mr Parkinson said he was sorry for using the image. “I apologise if I have offended anyone with the campaign. That was certainly not my intention when we created it,” he said.
“You put strong ideas across, and if they’ve been poorly received then I apologise.”
Mr Parkinson said he used an image of Auschwitz to advertise weight-loss and exercise classes because “it’s like a calorie concentration camp”.
“The idea of the campaign isn’t to upset anybody. The way branding works is … you want people talking about your business. We want them talking about us, but we don’t want people to take offence at it.”