Nissan campaign escapes ban despite dozens of complaints

A campaign for Nissan has escaped a ban from the advertising regulator despite dozens of complaints that it was offensive for using a line from a former German national anthem associated with the Nazis. Nissan's poster and digital campaign, used to promote the 370Z model, used the strapline "Deutschland Deutschland Uber Rated". The tagline is a play on a line in the first verse of the former German national anthem, Das Lied der Deutschen, which the Nazis adopted as part of their regime. The Advertising Standards Authority received 36 complaints that the campaign was variously offensive or racist towards Germans. But the ASA rejected complaints that the campaign breached the advertising code relating to causing widespread offence or of being racist. The ASA said that although the "phrase and the stanza from which it [the tagline] was taken had been adopted by the Nazis as part of their regime, we considered that in the context of a car ad, the majority of consumers would not make this association" and that it was "unlikely to interpreted by most consumers as racist". Nissan responded that the campaign ran during the World Cup with the theme of "How to beat the Germans". The company said it was a "light-hearted" suggestion challenging the perception that German sports cars are superior and it believed few people would even make the connection between the tagline, the original line from the national anthem, and the Nazis. Nissan said the ad did not violate its anti-hate policy because it did not "advocate hatred against a group of people or a specific organisation". • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".