An advert posted on Volkswagon’s official Instagram Page for its Golf cars described as promoting white supremacist tendencies and being anti-black has been officially withdrawn yesterday.
The ad shows large gargatuan pale-skinned hands seeming to push and then flick a black man away from a shiny new yellow Golf parked on a street.
German television hinted that the ‘hand’ suggests a “white power” gesture, while letters that appear on the screen later briefly spell out a racist slur in German.
The ad was described racist and insulting. Volkswagen promised to investigate how it came about and draw consequences.
Juergen Stackmann, the VW brand’s board member for sales and marketing, and Elke Heitmueller, head of diversity management, took to Twitter and LinkedIn to apologise and vow not to tolerate any form of racism.
Both of them said: “We understand the public outrage at this. Because we’re horrified, too. This video is an insult to all achievements of the civil rights movement. It is an insult to every decent person.”
