AF Site Team

Its seems that Apple isn't the only company that picked an unfortunate name to promote a new product recently. German luxury carmaker Audi has introduced a number of mock public-service announcements featuring the "Green Police" -- forest green-uniformed officers who give tips about saving energy. The Green Police campaign will get its widest exposure in Audi's Super Bowl commercial during CBS's (CBS) Feb. 7 telecast, according to AgencySpy.

The problem? The Green Police was a name used in **** Germany to refer to the German Order Police, or Orpo, who were given the moniker because of their green uniforms. The Orpo weren't merely traffic cops, however. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, one battalion was central in sending Jews, Poles and Gypsies to concentration camps.

While the mock PSAs are humorous, with a shtick that leans more toward Reno 911! than Schindler's List, it's certainly never fortuitous for a German company to bring up reminders of the Third Reich. Still, it's likely that most U.S. viewers won't connect the "Green Police" in their history books with the ones in Audi's Super Bowl ad promoting its A3 TDI clean-diesel vehicle. An Audi spokesman didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

This will mark Audi's third year running a commercial during the Super Bowl, the most expensive advertising slots on TV. Though the price for a 30-second spot has reportedly fallen to between $2.5 million and $2.8 million from 2009's record-high $3 million, a Super Bowl commercial is still a major investment for any company: Not only must the company buy the airtime, but the cost of producing a Super Bowl commercial can reach $1 million.

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AF Site Team

Audi is taking some heat over the unintended connection one blogger made between the company's Green Police ad that's scheduled to debut during the Super Bowl and the Ordnungspolizei, the uniformed regular German police force when the ****'s ruled Germany. Because of the Ordnungspolizei's green uniforms, they were sometimes referred to as the green police.

Jeffrey Kuhlman, the chief communications officer for Audi of America, told AutoblogGreen that he personally talked to two Jewish leaders – Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti Defamation League, and Fred Zeidman, Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum – about the green police ads and that they did not see a problem with the spot. Kuhlman added that:

We agree that Audi could've easily gone with Eco Police or Enviro Police or a bunch of other names that don't have this association and avoided the incident. But we've seen the Super Bowl ad (there's a teaser companion spot here) and can tell you that it's not offensive in any way. It does what a super-expensive Super Bowl ad should do: be funny and promote a product (in this case, clean diesel technology and the A3 TDI). It's not the best ad we've ever seen, but really it's not worth getting our eco-washed undies in a bundle about, either. After all, Israel's main arm of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the area of enforcement and deterrence is called, you guess it, the Green Police.

wailshark

I really don't see how this is a big deal or anything.

Sincerely doubting that a large number of people would even make this association, and even if they do clearly it isn't what the ad is about.

Talk about pushing for over-political-correctness (yes I can make up words :P )

estrn_uro

Most football-watching Americans can't point out Europe on a map anyway...

PhinX404

LOL! that is so true estrn_uro!

Wbaker90

I'm a football watching american, and i can distinguish without names damn near every country in the world thank you very much