Editor's note: This story contains language from liberals that some readers my find more offensive than the normal America-bashing, God-hating, left-wing spew that's become a staple of their discourse. Be warned.   

Along with many others, I complained a couple of days ago that Mercedes-Benz was morally bankrupt for using the image of a notorious racist, communist, and murderer as part of a marketing gimmick.

Here's the original story:

I’m Surprised the Amoral Jerks at Mercedes-Benz Don’t Use Hitler’s Image to Promote Cars

January 12, 2012 by Dan Mitchell

I hope my car doesn’t break down anytime soon. I’ve already sworn I will never buy a car from General Motors or Chrysler, and now I have to add Mercedes-Benz to my personal boycott list.

Mercedes Spokesman Glorifies Totalitarian Murderer

Maybe I’m being naively dogmatic, but I refuse to patronize a company that uses a mass murdering communist and racist like Che Guevera as a marketing ploy.

It’s not like I would ever spend a lot of money for a car anyhow, but even if somebody deposits $10 million in my bank account, you can rest assured that I won’t be cruising around town in the MB Guevera C230, the MB Hitler E350, or the MB Mao GL450.

2
1
View Full Article
Daniel J. Mitchell

Daniel J. Mitchell

Daniel J. Mitchell is a top expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy at the Cato Institute.

Be the first to read Daniel J. Mitchell’s column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.

Most Recent Articles

Join the Debate
46 Comments So Far
Login in to Post Your Comments
« Previous1Next »
curmudgeon10 Wrote: Jan 16, 2012 9:05 PM
heres a sugestion, mercedes. since MB seems to be the vehicle of choice for car bombs in the middle east, advertize it! 10,000 murdering monsters could not be wrong! they chose MB--you should too. try it, MB. why just use one murdering monster, che, when so many are available?
Flag as Offensive
WS2 Wrote: Jan 16, 2012 9:40 AM
Isn't there a little irony is using a Commie charicature to sell a capitalist product. Kind of like spitting on his grave, isn't it?
Flag as Offensive
algae Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:45 PM
Gee, I wonder how many Mercedes are sold in Cuba - that "utopia" of socialist policy?

In that egalitarian wonderland all the peasantry must certainly have at least one? Si?

What? You say none of the peasants have a Mercedes in Cuba? Not even the ones driving taxi-cabs? They use coco-taxi, the 3 wheeled pedicabs? No, say it is not so, I cannot believe.

Maybe then, the Mercedes, they belong to the elite in cuba? The elite that most certainly cannot possibly exist because of the hard fought revolution by che and slaughter of innocents. Only necessary to bring about the modern utopia.. a shared sacrifice by the needy for the needy so that every man could own a Mercedes and ride in triumph down the Avenida De La Cagadota.

Flag as Offensive
algae Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:46 PM
.. or maybe Mercedes, your witless advertisers just stepped in a big pile and got leftist liberal all over their shoes.
Flag as Offensive
c5c5c5 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:15 PM
Excellent Column Mr Mitchell!

I would be laughing so hard if it were not for the horrific acts these tyrants did to their peoples and others.
Flag as Offensive
jim39 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 7:27 PM
I agree about the GM/Chrysler boycott. I hate Chrysler's ads - the ones with the moaning minstrels and the ones that sound like they're made by the Detroit Mob are on my personal S-List.

Today I was tailgated by a woman who looked like the First Chupacabra, driving a Chrysler product; the car looked like a plastic tank and the driver was thoroughly obnoxious. The plates were not identifiable - (maybe it WAS the First Succubus, after all!) - and her nastiness was as evident as the Worst Lady's.

Nope. I will never drive one of those. Add Mercedes to the list of do-not-buy. They should not have even considered the ad in the first place. And I DO hope whomever came up with the ad is soon unemployed. OWS-inspired trash.
Flag as Offensive
Dan427 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 3:33 PM
Anyone who uses the image of Che in a positive way is afflicted with weapons grade stupidity.
Flag as Offensive
T237 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 4:33 PM
Love that phrase: "weapons grade stupidity"!
Flag as Offensive
binc Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 6:04 PM
Any adult that wears a Che T shirt is a bonafide moron including little Johnny Depp.
Flag as Offensive
Paulus Textor Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 12:29 PM
Sadly, Mercedes-Benz has long been a company that created well-engineered cars, often with interesting and fun styles (like the 1950's gull-wing coupe). If there's one thing communism is unable to develop, it's really cool, well-engineered, fun cars.

Russian vehicles under communism looked like (and still do look like) retreads from the 1940's. Cuba--the land of Che's worst crimes--still looks like it was frozen in time in 1958, judging by the (few) cars they drive. Germany--the promised land of great engineering--produced (only in the commie East Zone), the hideous, smoke-belching Trabant. The East Germans celebrated reunification by getting groups of young men together, picking up a Trabant, and tossing it in a dumpster.
Flag as Offensive
Paulus Textor Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 12:32 PM
And note also, that as America becomes more and more socialist, our cars are becoming less and less cool. This is largely the result of regulations issued by our commie central committee in Washington.

Compare today's hideous, heavy, tank-like Camaro with the cool Camaros of the 1970's. Case closed.

Can anyone really make the case that the styling of a Lexus today is that much cooler than a Hyundai?

Clunky styling--yet another reason to hate commies (and Washington DC).
Flag as Offensive
binc Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 6:00 PM
Oh but Paulus, don't you know how very cool one looks that drives a matchbook sized piece of garbage that would get flattened by a large bug and that runs on coal powered electricity? Come on, get with the cool program and be sure to wear skinny little black glasses that one has to stare straight ahead through in order to be able to see.
Flag as Offensive
Don't Tread On Me3 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 12:24 PM
That was a great ad campaign ... for sending potential Mercedes customers to BMW!

Did Che ever actually have a Mercedes at his disposal?

Next they should reprint 1 of the many photos of Der Fuehrer riding in 1 of his parades / motorcades in an open Mercedes. Maybe with some caption about how great leaders of the past have chosen Mercedes for its uncompromising quality & prestige, blah blah.
Flag as Offensive
Jimiey Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 10:11 AM
Che Guevara hit the nail on the head about one person: obama ***** is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent
Flag as Offensive
arpiem Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 10:37 AM
obama is only half black. He is indolent and lazy, however.
Flag as Offensive
upsidedownjack Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 11:42 AM
Read his "BOOK"! He gave any claim of being 1/2 white when he was Young! Did not TRUST his "mother's" Race, and stood with the Black's and Communist!
Flag as Offensive
Judy721 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 5:33 PM
Affirmative action educated, what did you expect? Is that what he hides all of is school records, college records Senate records, passport, BC?
He was given an education as a foreign aid student. Oh wow what does that mean? He was a foreign student!
Flag as Offensive
CGinColo Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:37 AM
My blood boiled when I read this article. Dan's view of Guevara and the history-igornants who glorify this devil is right on.

But... After I read the Fox article (linked) I cooled down. And I propose that you should too, Dan. Fox's reporting made it easy to believe that some moron that probably did not know how to spell Guevara dropped this image for a "few seconds" into a 45-min presentation.

Big busy companies make mistakes like this very easily (I know from experience). Its easy to believe that this fell through the cracks without notice of its lightning rod effect. I thought the Mercedes explaination was reasonable too.

Flag as Offensive
TommyD6of11 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 5:21 PM
I disagree. Likely, several executives looked at this slide show before it was released. Even more likely, the chairman rehearsed many times in front of the slide show to get his timing just right.
Flag as Offensive
CGinColo Wrote: Jan 21, 2012 9:23 AM
Certainly could be, Tommy. But... there is room for doubt. As an exec myself, I have pitched material that contained a few glitches that I didn't know were in there. They could have seen it and not noticed that the image was Che - it had no accomanying talking points, was not labeled, and was up for less than 45 seconds.

So... I would look around to see if this is a trend with MB. I cant see that it is.

My point... we have plenty to shoot at. Lets be sure of our target before we shoot. Else we loose credibility. I wouldn't take a shot a what "I thought was an elk, before I realized it was the nieghbor's horse". I think that is what Dan did here. He not only shot, he got out the howitzer and made a crater where there was an elk.
Flag as Offensive
Bob319 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:21 AM
Now I'm feeling bad - we just drove home a MB C class for a test drive. We only look at cars every ten years. Naturally overpriced and we will not get it. It does have all the good German engineering and handling. What was interesting to me was number of minorities in the show room and the number of sales folks that were minorities. Looks like the MB will be the next status symbol for some. Somehow this stupid ad with Che starts to make sense - How the world has changed.
Flag as Offensive
Hunrodr Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 10:01 AM
lol....bummer
Flag as Offensive
CGinColo Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 10:10 AM
Read the Fox Article for which Dan provided a link. Fair and balanced. This was not an ad and it probably was not a "message" either. I dont appologize for MB. I would not buy any car from a country that was the architect of the holocost. But lets save the ammo for better targets.
Flag as Offensive
arpiem Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 10:39 AM
MB used to be at the top of the list for reliability, but no longer.
Flag as Offensive
Paulus Textor Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:18 AM
Great article. It's amazing how few people, to this day, understand what a loathsome creature Che was, or how loathsome a system communism is.
Flag as Offensive
Greg1084 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:19 AM
Minus two minutes ago? Wow. I'd like to send my comments into the future, too. How do you do it?
Flag as Offensive
volinva Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:17 AM
All MB needed to say was that "Che was just a guy in the neighborhood" and everything would be fine!
Flag as Offensive
Joseph64 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:14 AM
I wonder if Mercedes even realized that a large part of their customer base in America is rich, black rap stars, actors and sports figures? I wonder if those same rappers knew what Che thought about black people, would they continue to buy their cars and promote MB vehicles in their videos?
Flag as Offensive
Barbara364 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 9:10 AM
Shame on Mercedes....but in the long run....I don't care. I do believe there are other cars to buy....so let's concentrate on which one we might each individually want. AND never buy Mercedes again. We had one ONCE and would never own another. Heavens, that car gave us more problems and to repair it cost an arm and a leg.
Flag as Offensive
Isgau8 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 8:44 AM
Maybe the ad caption should have read:

"If the 200 people Che slaughtered at La Cabana prison were alive today, they would definitely be driving MB."
Flag as Offensive
Winkmeister (Formerly David) Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 8:33 AM
It sounds like MB is trying to cut into Subaru's action with the college professors and student academia.
Flag as Offensive
Michael409 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 6:08 AM
Che is Obama's hero. Mercedes does duhm well.
Flag as Offensive
Robert 206 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 5:38 AM
The stupidity of the staff at Mercedes is mind-blowing. Perhaps it indicates some lingering nostalgia for Herr Hitler. Herr Goebbels is probably rocking with merriment somewhere in Hell! Conclusion: the product is superb but the PR staff should receive a Nobel prize for abject stupidity! It really does deserve recognition as the greatest blunder in the advertising world--EVER!
Flag as Offensive
Robert 206 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 5:55 AM
Mercedes should give Humberto Fontova, a TH columnist who has assiduously detailed the many crimes of Che on a regular basis, a free Mercedes!
Flag as Offensive
WS2 Wrote: Jan 16, 2012 8:22 AM
Obama already has that prize- he won it in 2009.
Flag as Offensive
glenbo02 Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 5:32 AM
Not that I'd ever be able to buy one anyway, but it's for sure off the table now. Any company that would use an image of a sick, gutless, scared, slimeball little bully like che has no product or service that I will ever want.
Flag as Offensive
Judester Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 4:23 AM
I've noticed that the majority of ads are very stupid and it makes me wonder about the marketing skills of the people in charge of buying these ads. Is it mass hypnosis of the corporations? The worst of the ads seem to be the insurance companies, next comes the drug companies. Please tell me the significance of two bathtubs on a beach? Some of these ads are so bazar that I ask myself, what's the product?
Flag as Offensive
JanelleH Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 3:45 AM
Extremely stupid ad campaign.......more than a few people in the age group who can afford the cars also remember the history of Guevera. MB is obviously taking serious flack about this and just a guess, but I imagine it isn't going to help sales.
Flag as Offensive
activated Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 1:57 AM
MB off the list, although I imagine its now the dream car of every liberal communist in the world now.
Flag as Offensive
upsidedownjack Wrote: Jan 15, 2012 11:49 AM
Just take a look at the Movie Communist that drive the MB's! How many of them have gone down to Venaswilla and kissed the Fatbut of that little Communist? And then you might look at Jimmy the pea Nut Farmer, The fat butt Roger Moore and the rest of THEM!
Do they drive a MB?
Flag as Offensive
WS2 Wrote: Jan 16, 2012 8:20 AM
Oddly enough Cadillacs, Buicks and Lincolns are the cars of choice for dictators.
Flag as Offensive
« Previous1Next »
New comments on this article - click to refresh