Dive Summary:
- The Italian chocolate company Ferrero has yanked ads in Germany promoting its white chocolate Ferrero Küsschen product using the slogan "Germany votes White."
- The ads, dreamed up by M&C Saatchi, were meant to coincide with elections in Germany, leveraging political themes but not xenophobia.
- Ferrero has since hosted discussions about the issue on its Facebook page and issued a statement via email to Der Spiegel saying, "It is important for us to clearly stress that we are strictly against any form of xenophobia, right-extremism or racism."
Dive Insight:
It looks like Food Dive has one more commercial to add to our list of the year's most controversial video spots. The company already faced some unwanted publicity this year after it had to back-peddle on its cease-and-desist letter to the founder of World Nutella day. That initial confrontation may have been a little easier to understand from a legal standpoint. Looking at this new ad, however, it's tough to imagine how the company thought this campaign would play well.