This billboard advertisement attracted fierce criticism from Jewish community, which was launched to promote New Zealand’s Hell pizza chain, known for its bizarre advertising campaigns. However, following the controversy the firm decided to scrap the advertisement campaign showing Hitler saluting a slice of pizza. The Nazi leader is shown in a Heil Hitler salute with pizza in his hand, next to his quote, ‘It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell.’ The firm had received several complaints regarding the advertisement for being offensive.
The advertisement was ‘in bad taste’ and ‘deeply offensive,’ the New Zealand Jewish Council wrote in a letter of complaint to the pizza firm. Commenting over the issue, Kirk MacGibbon of the Auckland-based Cinderella advertising agency said, ‘We thought that people would be able to see a funny side to a guy doing a ‘sieg heil’ salute with a piece of pizza in his hand’.
MacGibbon further stated that the agency did not set out to offend or generate publicity with its advertising. However, last year, Hell’s condom mailout to advertise its Lust pizza attracted 685 complaints, and the advertising watchdog ruled that the advertisement had violated standards of decency and social responsibility.
