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05/31/2008: "German Retail Chain Slammed for 'Racist' portrayal of an Italian in ad"

German electronics giant Media Markt may have thought its TV ad featuring a stereotype of an Italian was funny. But after Italian newspapers decried that ad as racist, it was pulled. It's not the first time the company has got into hot water for its depiction of its European neighbors.

Toni wears oversized sunglasses pushed back into his wavy hair, a gold chain around his neck, three-day-old scruff and a moustache. He is macho, greasy and sexist -- the Italian stereotype. That doesn't play so well in bella Italia. The Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Republica called the ads, four of them in total, racist and riddled with cliches.

Italians living in Germany have also complained about the campaign. Particular anger was directed against the spot where Toni explains the difference between people on either side of the Alps: "The Germans buy laptops; the Italians buy referees," a too-close-for-comfort jab at the bribery scandal that rocked Italian football in 2006. Although Toni's next line is "just a little joke," Italy has failed to find much humor in the ad.

[ Could it be they are most offended because the portrayal is quite valid? ]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,556709,00.html