Editor's note: This story contains language from liberals that some readers my find more offensive than the normal America-bashing, God-hating, left-wing spew that's become a staple of their discourse. Be warned.
Along with many others, I complained a couple of days ago that Mercedes-Benz was morally bankrupt for using the image of a notorious racist, communist, and murderer as part of a marketing gimmick.
Here's the original story:
January 12, 2012 by Dan Mitchell
I hope my car doesn’t break down anytime soon. I’ve already sworn I will never buy a car from General Motors or Chrysler, and now I have to add Mercedes-Benz to my personal boycott list.
Mercedes Spokesman Glorifies Totalitarian Murderer
Maybe I’m being naively dogmatic, but I refuse to patronize a company that uses a mass murdering communist and racist like Che Guevera as a marketing ploy.
It’s not like I would ever spend a lot of money for a car anyhow, but even if somebody deposits $10 million in my bank account, you can rest assured that I won’t be cruising around town in the MB Guevera C230, the MB Hitler E350, or the MB Mao GL450.
Michael Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation says it much better than I can.
There’s something about Che Guevara that convinces older European men that they will become cooler through association with his “brand.” We saw that again yesterday when Mercedes-Benz Chairman Dieter Zetsche launched a new car under a banner picture of Guevara. …Che Guevara, not to put too fine a point on it, was a psychopath whose sadistic lust for blood was not easily quenched. He killed for pleasure. He had, moreover, little time for youthful rebellion and none at all for individualism. Lastly, Che Guevara was a racist who specifically held blacks in contempt. I think about this often when I see deluded young African-Americans wearing a t-shirt with his likeness. But a German born a handful of years after 1945 really ought to have known better. Much has been written about how Guevara executed men and boys in prison in the early revolutionary years in Cuba, disposing of such bourgeois niceties as trials. …Speaking of blacks he said: “The ***** is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent.” Yes, quite a model that Che Guevara. You’d buy a car from him, wouldn’t you? What will Mercedes-Benz come up with next? The Baader-Mienhof super coupe?
Almost exactly one year ago, the Baltimore Symphony used the Hammer and Sickle emblem of the Soviet Union to promote an event. That was disgusting, but at least the event involved the work of a Soviet-era composer.
Mercedes-Benz, by contrast, is using the image Che Guevera because the amoral executives of the company think this will help sell cars to an amoral public.
Please don’t buy anything from a company with that cavalier attitude about human decency.
Recommended
Well, the company has backed down. We won. It’s only symbolic, but let’s enjoy a small victory.
Here are some excerpts from a Foxnews.com story.
Daimler AG, the German company that manufactures Mercedes-Benz luxury cars, called its promotional use of an image of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara a “thoughtless” and “stupid” decision that was not intended to offend people. …In a statement sent to FoxNews.com, Daimler said it “was not condoning the life or actions of this historical figure or the political philosophy he espoused.”
That’s probably not the most heartfelt and sincere apology ever issued, but it will have a positive impact. Somewhere at Daimler AG, there’s a marketing executive that is going to lose a bonus (and maybe even a job). Other people in the fields of advertising and public relations will have seen the backlash and be much less likely to make similar mistakes.
And perhaps a few people who were ignorant will actually learn a bit about history and begin to understand the evil nature of communism.
I doubt this will have any impact on the empty-headed kids who wear Che t-shirts, but you can’t have everything.
From a personal perspective, the best thing about this episode is that I’ve been attacked by a water-carrying apologist for totalitarianism.
In my line of work, one way to measure whether you’re doing a good job is the degree to which you get criticized by bad people.
Being called a “dickhead” by this tool may be even better than the time a left-wing British columnist called me a “high priest of light tax, small state libertarianism.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member