48Responses:

• snooks

  

  Said on the 1 April 2008

  You’ve got to wonder exactly what they were thinking when they made this . . . no actual goose-stepping, though . . .

• Dave

  

  Said on the 1 April 2008

  Makes you wonder how we’re portayed abroad? I dread to think.

• brian

  

  Said on the 1 April 2008

  yes it really is pathetic. Must have been written by a complete fool.

• Jonny Chestwig

  

  Said on the 1 April 2008

  I don’t know, I think it’s quite amusing, although you could see the denouement coming from a million miles away. National stereotyping is great fun and other countries do it just as much as we do, I think the German’s are probably grown up enough to take a little bit of banter.

  I was disappointed by the lack of mulleted East Germans in 2-stripe tracksuits though.

• Marsten

  

  Said on the 1 April 2008

  It’s playing WAGNER?

  The same Wagner who had his music used in the nazi propaganda film ‘Triumph of the Will’?

  The same exact SONG that they used in Apocalypse Now in order to make the American attack on that little defenceless Vietnam village seem even more morally dubious and comparable with said nazi propaganda film?

  Is that REALLY the type of film they want to use here to represent Germany?

  I mean, it seems a little bit senseless….

• brian

  

  Said on the 2 April 2008

  i quite agree, Marsten. What gits.

• Silky

  

  Said on the 2 April 2008

  Come on, Brian, no need to make fun of poor old Marsten there (and in such an underhanded way too).

  Please stick to passing comments about the fools and gits who work for Euro RSCG.

  God, I hate to be one of them, wouldn’t you Brian?

• R E Krishna

  

  Said on the 2 April 2008

  I wouldn’t have expected that anything so French as a Citroen would have any kind of German connection at all. Why the next thing you know there’ll be, say a pizza advert with Italian music playing, and in small writing at the foot of the screen it would say “made in Germany by Dr Oetker”. Oh for goodness sake, how ridiculous, that could never happen.

• Jonny Chestwig

  

  Said on the 2 April 2008

  I resent that comment Krishna, the good Herr Doktor Oetker is my next door neigbour in Florence.

• R E Krishna

  

  Said on the 3 April 2008

  I know, must apologize. You refer of course to Herr Doktor Giuseppe Oetker. As Italian as Sauerkraut.

• _f

  

  Said on the 3 April 2008

  It’s clearly ironic. The only way it could have been more ironic would have been if they’d had Hitler driving it or something. Or a sat-nav that only directs you to Poland.

• Silky

  

  Said on the 3 April 2008

  Apparently they made a more ironic one with someone who allegedly looks like Max Moseley driving the car…

• brian

  

  Said on the 8 April 2008

  I quite agree Silky. What hapless buffoons.

• Gina

  

  Said on the 8 April 2008

  I’m not even sure I understand the advert at all – surely it’s more insulting to the French for Citroen to advertise their car as being German?

  It falls into the category of ‘adverts with unneccesarily and offensively loud music’.

• Chris Kruger

  

  Said on the 10 April 2008

  I don’t think it’s so bad. Everyone knows you can rib the Germans. All of the symbology, and music predates the War Period. It drops hints in a playful way but it’s only because the Evil ideology was gestated within German culture that we make that link at all. Most of my British friends are much more tasteless/less pc than you it seems.

• Al

  

  Said on the 11 April 2008

  I think this is a “second degre” ad meant to make fun of silly cliche and flatter the viewers that get it into buying the car:

  1. This ad makes fun of cliches and shows how ridiculous (and wrong) they are.

  2. Including the cliche that German cars are better than French cars.

  3. Indeed, French cars are more reliable than German cars (but Japanese cars beat them all): http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/top10.html?apc=3128339010848601

  4. So disregard cliches and by a C5.

• Mark

  

  Said on the 13 April 2008

  When I saw this advert I was completely speechless. I thought the camera angles were superb, the acting and direction of the short was nothing far from brilliant. Insofar the content – well, I hit the roof. I grew up here in the UK but am German. I’ve had my fair share of abuse which I have taken on the chin. However, this advert is a new low. It’s tasteless, tacky and rude. I agree with the comment: “if they’d had Hitler driving it or something. Or a sat-nav that only directs you to Poland.” Very apt. If it would have been a black person and made to depict the poorer sections of a country now being able to afford a new car because they are of a different skin colour, then heads would have rolled. Not this, though. Germany is still being “abused” for what happened.
  WE (this generation) didn’t do it, so bloody well let us be. We accept it, now let us move on for God’s sake.

• Cheshirecat

  

  Said on the 15 April 2008

  I actually think it is an excellent ad! When ever anyone mentions Germany or German traditions the 2 world wars are usually mentioned afterwards… people grow up! modern day Berlin is much more tolerant than modern day london. (i am british and live in london) its really great that citron have the sense of humor to acknowledge that french cars mostly do not have the same build quality of german car manufacturers.
  It has some stereotypes which, of course do not apply to modern day Germans. Does anyone who has seen this actually think Germans live in castles and fight with swords? it is a portrayal of a harmless stereotypes. no mention of anything to do with the first or second world war… surely the blind association of the German people with the natzi regime is!!! you people are more offensive than this ad by far! shoot me down but you know its true!

  apart from that it has some great cinematography with excellently constructed piece of music, Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner.

• matt

  

  Said on the 16 April 2008

  i can’t belive some of the people on this page including the original author,
  This advert is really good, its probably not the best advert in the world but it is far from the worst.
  The camera angles are brilliant and the acting is suberb.

  Another think to note is that most of the actors, crew, producers, directors are all german or have a major link to germany. If you think that this advert is produced to poke fun at the germans do you think that the crew would have worked on it. It was a german working with citroen who originally developed the idea.

  The whole point of the sterotypes is to promote the car no to be racist to the germans. The car is clearly french as it is citroen, the advert labels it as unmistakably german as it is marketed as a well built car that will not break. Although this could be a marketing plot the advert is not intended to be racist.

  Policitacal correctness is killing our society, all of the great comedy over the past century has been based on making fun of a person or group, it is not intended to be racist thus it is comedy. If we start to view everything in a PC way the world will be dead. I think that you should be ashamed of yourself to call this advert ‘one of the worst adverts on tv’.

  if you had actually been to berlin you would have realised that this type of advert does not upset and it is talked as a good advert.

  get a life and get out some more,

  This advert is not racist, and is designed to be playful and in time you will see the error of your ways

• Capucine

  

  Said on the 23 April 2008

  Hmmm I’m really not sure about the use of Wagner with its Riefenstahl overtones, but in essence I don’t think it’s a bad ad. It’s twee and knowing a few Germans, they don’t seem to mind it. But, I wonder which planner at Euro got away with the proposition of Unmistakeably German, when we all know that German reliability in the automotive world is on the slide and the French don’t have much to crow about in that area either; they should have swerved around that, I think. Do you see what I did there?

• ben fegore

  

  Said on the 26 April 2008

  Germans don’t mind having the piss taken out of them because for some reason even those who weren’t even born during nazi times feel strangely responsible for all that happened. What would you say as a German? Hey I am German, I never invaded Poland in my life and I will prove my sense of humour by laughing at any silly joke that you will throw at me!

  It is a rubbish ad and most people who think it is ok to laugh at national stereotypes are probably hesitant to laugh at racist jokes.

  But that is not why it is the worst.

  The advert is ‘the worst’ (hey why not be funny and call it the wurst) because it is badly written.

  It is OBVIOUS, appeals to the lowest commmon denomiator. Thereby probaby missing its target group of people who actually have enough money to buy the car.

  I remember the last ad that tried to sell cars on the ‘german’ angle (‘Britisher Architect’). Rover.
  You remember Rover?They have disappeared completely since then.

  If you want to sell a car dont use stereotypes unless you are Audi and sell cars to Brits.
  ‘Fortsprung durch Technik’ – excellent ads.

• British Bullterrier

  

  Said on the 26 April 2008

  Love the ad, how about a Mercedes Benz advert with a french surrender monkey driving into occupied Paris licking a few GESTAPO boots? That would amuse the people who don’t like politcal correctness surely. I would buy a car that had the guts to advertise like that.

• Sam

  

  Said on the 27 April 2008

  what are people complaining about exactly?
  this advert is brilliant, yes it plays on stereotypes – but that does not instantly mean we are going to return to the stone age
  you seem to be getting excited over a little light hearted comedy

  the advert is extremely funny, and it appeals to a wide audience – so just because it plays with a stereotype does not drag us back into the past at all, whilst it injects the idea of a smart,superior,powerful german people (hypodermic needle theory) the audience accepts it at face level – you’re making something out of nothing.

• GTR

  

  Said on the 30 April 2008

  It appears Citroen have preverbably “shot” themselves in the foot with this “tacky” advert.
  First of all its a put down to Citroen marketing the car as made in Germany.

  Secondly it subconciously has the effect on the mind of portraying French cars as inadequate
  hence the made in Germany portrail.

  Thirdly the portrail of Germans in Nazi imagery is stupidity beyond words.
  I have owned a German car and it was terrible
  however i have met a few German people and they were extremely nice.

  So to sum up Citroens PR have succeeded in causing unneccessary offence
  and giving people a reason to buy German.

• John Parker

  

  Said on the 30 April 2008

  What is a panza?

• Jochen

  

  Said on the 3 May 2008

  Well… I could laugh about it. But I am third generation past the War and thus gained some distance. The ad also plays with stereotypes not related to the War and the Third Reich, too. It also admits, that, although there are clichés on our past, there are also clichés on our thoroughness, reliability, and responsibility. I can understand, that some may feel a little offended, but as long as there are no svastikas, siegheiling (BTW, dear Blogger, it’s “Sieg Heil”, first the I, then the E in Sieg, the other way round in Heil) comrades with bald heads or brown uniforms and other fascist attitudes, I think, we Germans should cool down a little – there are a lot of jokes about Adolf Nazi in German, too.
  BUT: That doesn’t mean you should disobey the “Don’t mention the War” -rule. You never know whom you are talking to, there are still people alive whose mothers were raped by Russian, French, British or US soldiers, there are some, who lost relatives in Auschwitz or Theresienstadt (like I did, for example), there are people who lost all they had in one night’s carpet bombing. You may speak about the War with care and with an historian’s eye, always asking for the story of your counterpart. And simply don’t make silly jokes.

• Nick

  

  Said on the 3 May 2008

  Why do we all take ourselves so seriously ! I’m english and we are represented in many stereotypical ways, and why not, we do funny things and behave in funny ways. The add is brilliant and it takes the micky out of the French as much as the Germans.

• commenter

  

  Said on the 19 May 2008

  This is a good, well-made ad that pokes fun at stereotypes, but it seems that perhaps it’s pitched at a bit to intellek-chually high level for some of the offense-taking numpties posting here.

• brian

  

  Said on the 20 May 2008

  i quite agree. such idiots.

• P E Dant

  

  Said on the 4 September 2008

  Never mind the stereotype buzzcocks, surely the biggest crime is that they have spelt ‘unmistakably’ incorrectly?

• Ellie

  

  Said on the 23 September 2008

  can I just say that everybody I know agrees with me that this advert is one of the coolest adverts ever, and it was one of the reasons why i visited germany.
  I think it’s really more offensive to the french, showing that German cars are better than french cars.

• Philip D-B

  

  Said on the 25 September 2008

  To: John Paker

  It is a large black and white bear that comes from China….

• R E Krishna

  

  Said on the 29 September 2008

  To me the advert says this:- “We know you’re used to French cars being shite, but we’ve finally made one that’s good enough to be German.” Fair enough I suppose if you then start thinking of Mercedes or BMW. But what if the comparison is meant to be with Trabant or Wartburg? Still want to buy one???

• wurstebowling

  

  Said on the 6 December 2008

  i’m german and i’ve actually got this one saved in my youtube favourites. funny ad. the only offensive bit is comparing a crappy citroen to lovely german cars.

• CovertJellyfish

  

  Said on the 28 December 2008

  I think it is a shit ad not becauswe it has a bit of fun with outmoded ideas of German society but simply cause Citroen have made one useful car in their entire existence ( I am of course talking of the little duck (2CV for none car buffs)) Every other Citroen has been shit reheated crap.. The DS19 with it’s hydraulic suspension that broke down every hundred yards.. the AX made out of disused lunch boxes.. the Xara Picasso with space for (Shudder) CHILDREN.. Hmmm 35 grand on a piece of French Shit? Tell you what, we will keep our beef and lamb, you can keep your shitty cars….

• Nadine

  

  Said on the 15 February 2009

  Well, I’m from Germany and I really love this ad, although the author seems to have snitched a bit to much from Mark Twain’s “A Tramp Abroad”.

  First of all, the first take is located in south-western Germany, in fact, it’s somewhere in Baden-Wuerttemberg, in fact it’s one part of the Alps near the Swiss border, called the Allgaeu, where one can find high enough mountains AND funny looking manors.

  We hear “The Ride of the Valkyries”, a part of the opera “The Valkyrie” composed by Richard Wagner, which had it’s premiere in 1870. It’s no Nazi music at all, Wagner, a nationalist and antisemite, intended to write a kind of prototypical German music with German libretti – so did Bedrich Smetana in Czechoslowakia (“The Moldau”) and Modest Mussorgsky (“Boris Godunow”) in Russia. That’s nationalism, not National Socialism, and quite bombastic – Twain describes three hours of agony while listening to a Wagner opera in “A Tramp Abroad”.

  The fact, that Hitler adored Wagner and that this music was played in German extermination camps doesn’t do any harm to it’s artistic value and to the fact, that many people associate it with Germany, which was crucial for Wagner’s intention to compose it. On the other hand I fully understand, why this music was banned in Israel.

  The “fight” in the beginning shows in fact, that both of the ones fighting are members of a so called “fighting student corporation”, Twain takes at least one chapter to describe all that stuff, the so called “Mensur” (measure). It’s a very ritualised kind of fighting, with very strange rules.

  All student corporations, which also had prominent members of jewish descent, such as Heinrich Heine, no matter, if they were fighting ones or not, where forbidden and disbanded by the Nazi Regime by 1935 and converted into one organisation, ruled by the Nazis, the so called “Nationalsozialistische Studentenbund”. This process was called “Gleichschaltung”.

  The next important scene is the village, the car is entering shortly afterwards. The architecture, the musicians… That’s in Bavaria! The guy has travelled frickin’ 400 kilometers to eat some Nürnberger Rostbratwürstel or Thüringer, or whatever? By the way – if you ordered Nürnberger Rostbratwürstel in Upper Bavaria they look at you, as if they want to stone you to death, as they prefer white sausages! And there’s nothing Nazi about it – it’s plain regional stuff and habits.

  All that dead stuffed or skeletonized animals on the walls – normal for me. I grew up with that, as my grandpops did some hunting, he even wore that loden jackets and those silly hats. No worry about that. Most people likely to be dressed like that are Japanese or other Preissn (Prussians – pejorative for everyone who doesn’t belong to the Bavarian natives).

  Nazi guys like Hitler or Himmler also loved to run around in what Bavarians mostly regard as festive costume. There’s nothing Nazi about that clothes, people who regarded themselves as anti-Nazi also wore them at the same time as Hitler.

  The “Reichsadler”. Some European countries seeing themselves as heirs to the Roman Empire have chosen the eagle as heraldic animal, so did Russia, Austria and – surprise, surprise! – Germany. Do you even know where the term “3rd Reich” comes from? The Nazis regarded themselves in the continuity of the Roman Empire. After the Roman Empire had declined the “Sacrum Romanum Imperum”, in German “Heiliges Römisches Reich” was founded. It included parts of the modern states of Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Slowakia, Italy, Belgium – and that was about the year 1000 AD. The “Sacrum Romanum Imperum” which was more like a loose federation of small dukedoms ended in 1806, when Europe’s map was fragmented into nations after the Napoleonic Wars. Metternich and Talleyrand, anyone? The Nazis tried in a way to legitimate their regime by pretending that they would restore the old pre-WWI-empire of 1890 or earlier.

  Most of the motifs of this ad are based in this time and have nothing to do with Nazis.

• CovertJellyfish

  

  Said on the 15 February 2009

  Yeah, Wot Nadine said too…

• Narutofightindreamer

  

  Said on the 20 April 2009

  Ah, ha, ha. I like this one. Good ol’ Charlles De Gaulle would definitely approve of this ad….Actually those Citroen’s look like pretty nice cars. Do they build electric hybrids I hope? I’ve always wondered why it’s so damn hard to buy a Citroen, Renault, or Peugot over here in the U.S. I’m assuming the damn oil companies have something to do with that!!

• Narutofightindreamer

  

  Said on the 20 April 2009

  I think there was one Citroen Dealer down in Southern Cal, but I don’t know of any up here in Central and northern California.

• TheBlindinglyObvious

  

  Said on the 25 April 2009

  It’s an advert, people! It’s selling cars, people! The bloke is German, people. He drives a French car, people. He drives it through Germany, people. What the hell do you expect to see on an advert selling French cars driven by a German through Germany?

  I have immense respect for this advert, I love it!

• nick

  

  Said on the 1 May 2009

  Have you lot ever thought that infact citroen have made the ad not to sterotype germans but to use the of country of origin to promote their french car has having german attributes, i.e power, realibility instead of our stereotypes of a french car, i.e prone to breaking.

  Worst article ever.

• CovertJellyfish

  

  Said on the 2 May 2009

  If we ever had a thought it would die of lonelyness, as our sense of irony (which is not something that flattens the front of your shirt) chases thoughts out of our heads…

• this is a good ad

  

  Said on the 2 May 2009

  I like the pretty car.

• rik o shea

  

  Said on the 16 June 2009

  french cars, german quality ,fuck off ,ive just taken delivery of my new panzer and will put it to good use crushing every frog shitmobile i stumble across

• Em

  

  Said on the 30 June 2009

  My 2p’s worth. Personally I can’t see where WW2 comes into it. The ad is full of stereotypes, but then that’s the point – its unmistakeably German. I can’t believe politicians were discussing this in the House of Commons – you’d think with the way the econony is at the moment, they’d concentrate on more important issues.

  I like the advert and the guy in it is hot. I still wouldn’t buy a Citroen though.

• Citroën “Unmistakeably German” Ad. | Welcome To Wallyworld

  Said on the 15 August 2009

  [...] Tvs Worst Adverts says – Citroen have squeezed in every hackneyed, out-dated, and in some parts borderline offensive cliché about Germany that they could fit into 90 seconds [...]

• Glenn A

  

  Said on the 17 October 2009

  Actually French cars build quality has really improved in recent years, the styling is distinctive on their cars and they are a lot cheaper to buy and own than German cars. Apparently German car reliability isn’t as good as they make out, although a lot has to do with their cars being made under licence in low wage countries.

• CovertJellyfish

  

  Said on the 18 October 2009

  Cor… If it wasn’t for Dave repeatedly showing Top Gear that last comment would never have existed…..

  Thank you endless repeats.. Thank you…

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