A.T.U.-Spot verschwunden?
inappropriate advertising-spot of German subsidiary company “A.T.U.”

Hier aufgrund dieses Tipps ein Schreiben von uns an die amerikanische Mutterfirma, die A.T.U. gekauft hat.

Inzwischen ist der Spot von der ATU Homepage verschwunden. Zufall? Läuft der Spot noch im TV?
Im Falle einer neuen “Sichtung” bitten wir um Nachricht.

To
management board, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., L.P.
9 West 57 Street
Suite 4200, New York
Fax: +1 212 750 0003

cc
management board, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Ltd., Stirling Square
7 Carlton Gardens, London
Fax: +44 207 251 3801

cc

Zoe Watt, London press office, Fax; +44 207 839 9801

Object: inappropriate advertising-spot of German subsidiary company “A.T.U.”

(…)Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

As you have recently bought the German enterprise A.T.U. we are writing to let you know that this company might be in need of a bit more restructuring than what you are already aware of.

Regrettably, A.T.U. are advertising with Blackface right now in major TV-stations across Germany, enraging many customers, signalising that they are only interested in white clients and that being Black is equivalent to being filthy, undesirable and bad.

We are an anti-racism-media-watchdog organisation based in Germany, and received letters and emails from people across the nation, all of whom have voiced their concern about this ad.
A.T.U. chose to respond to our letter (see attached) in a manner which we find rather disrespectful. They didn’t apologize, but communicated between the lines that whoever voiced their concern or anger about this blackface advertising campaign was too ignorant to understand that it’s supposed to be funny.

This would be almost amusing if it wasn’t so sad. In Germany, unfortunately, hate-crimes against Black people are as common as the use of racist language and imagery. The A.T.U. internet campaign unfortunately helps perpetuate this tradition. Therefore we ask you to take immediate action.

Your webpage says that you “value creation” – for this reason we are counting on the fact that you will understand the aforementioned concerns.

Therefore we kindly ask you to have A.T.U. not only stop this campaign (print and TV) immediately, but also to educate the German managers and their complaints-department about what’s “funny”, what’s appropriate, and what’s plain racism.

Finally, we also wish to inform you that we will incorporate A.T.U.’s reply to our letter as a key example of “dominant discourse in postcolonial settings” in lectures on several universities and in publications on structural and everyday racism in Germany.

mit freundlichen Grüßen,

der braune mob e.V.
media-watch – schwarze deutsche in medien und öffentlichkeit
— www.derbraunemob.info —

executive board
(…)
We wish to inform you that this correnspondence is held publicly, and that we will publish this letter as well as your response for purpouses of teaching and documentation.

SPOT:

http://www.heyegroup.de/ (click on first window with white woman in Blackface)
or
http://www.horizont.net/aktuell/agenturen/pages/protected/Heye-bringt-A.T.U-ins-TV_77581.html

The slogan goes “damit Sie braungebrannt aus dem Urlaub kommen und nicht Schwarz vor Ärger” (“so that you return from holidays with a tan and not black from anger”).
Note:
“black from anger” ist a German saying that”s being used by (white) Germans to this day.

(…)

Responsible for the advertising agency Heye &Partner:
Markus Goetze: Geschäftsführer Beratung
Jan Okusluk: Creative Director
Martin Winter: Management Supervisor
Linrupstraße 16,
80335 München
Tel.: +49 89 665321900
Fax: +49 89 665321910
info@heye.de

Responsible for the company A.T.U Auto-Teile-Unger Handels GmbH & Co. KG:
Dr. Dietmar Geppert: Head of Marketing
Hueseyin Dereli: head of communication
Ulla Kraus: head of communication
Ralf Schalkhaußer: head of media

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