A controversial ad campaign by Amazon Studios has been pulled from New York City subway trains. The ad campaign was to promote its new series “Man in the High Castle.” The series presents a fictional future that has Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan winning World War II. As part of the campaign, subway trains were covered In Nazi symbols and the flag of Imperial Japan.
The campaign caused outrage among many who consider the display of Nazi imagery offensive and blatantly racist. “Half the seats in my car had Nazi insignias inside an American flag, while the other half had the Japanese flag in a style like the World War II design. So I had a choice, and I chose to sit on the Nazi insignia because I really didn’t want to stare at it,” stated commuter Ann Toback.
New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio called the ads “irresponsible and offensive” and advocacy groups as well as politicians called for the removal of the ads. Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for New York City Transit and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority sent out an email confirming that Amazon had decided to remove the ads because of the controversy.
