Canada firm apologizes for Holocaust reference in advertisement - Haaretz

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		John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, whose song was featured in the contreversial advert. (AP)

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Last update - 23:31 14/09/2007

Canada firm apologizes for Holocaust reference in advertisement

By Reuters

Canada's biggest phone company has apologized after a punk-rock reference to the Holocaust appeared on billboard advertisements for its cellphones.

The ads for Bell Canada's Solo discount service showed a young woman decked out in flashy punk rock attire, with a button that reads "Belsen was a gas" -- the controversial title of a song by the Sex Pistols, and a reference to Nazi Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

"It was inadvertent," Bell Canada spokesman Mark Langton said on Friday, noting that the dozen ads were taken down as soon as the company realized its mistake. "Obviously, we would never depict such an offensive slogan in our advertising."

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He said Bell officials approved the ads after examining sample images that were smaller than the final billboards. The button inscription could only be read when the ads were blown up to their full size, he said.

"In the proofing and approval materials, it was impossible to see the button, so our folks missed it."

BCE apologizes "for any offense or distress that we caused," Langton said.

The billboards appeared in mass-transit systems in Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as in Toronto, which has a large Jewish community and many Holocaust survivors.

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1.	Who?	02:23	\|	Hanoi	15/09/07

2.	Reasonable error?	02:45	\|	M. Franks-Lhermann	15/09/07

3.	Oh Canada	04:22	\|	Bob	15/09/07

4.	o canada	05:06	\|	max - toronto	15/09/07

5.	Bell Canada...	05:37	\|	Sam	15/09/07

6.	Bell Canada is Loserville	05:57	\|	DJ	15/09/07

7.	Almost as offensive as Madonna being a kabbalist	07:35	\|	NO name, No face.	15/09/07

8.	Trying to be SMART	09:11	\|	M	15/09/07

9.	that track title was suggested by mclaren	10:14	\|	Rowan Berkeley	15/09/07

10.	Bell should pay...	11:59	\|	dovale	15/09/07

11.	bob in DC	13:22	\|	wh	15/09/07

12.	dovale	13:27	\|	wh	15/09/07

13.	Bell should pay?	15:47	\|	Goldstein	15/09/07

14.	MR goldstein	18:16	\|	wh	15/09/07

15.	stupid me	18:21	\|	wh	15/09/07

16.	WHY JEWS FEAR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION	19:01	\|	novodysacred	15/09/07

17.	#3 Bob..Just another dumb American	19:03	\|	Brent	15/09/07

18.	apology...	19:07	\|	bodhi	15/09/07

19.	brent	19:19	\|	wh	15/09/07

20.	#14	19:57	\|	Adam	15/09/07

21.	Stupid business decisions	20:00	\|	Joan Stuchner	15/09/07

22.	#20&21	21:29	\|	wh	15/09/07

23.	joan stuchner	21:44	\|	wh	15/09/07

24.	Bell should pay	00:31	\|	Jacquie	16/09/07

25.	novodysacred	03:31	\|	sweis Melbourne	16/09/07

26.	Mistakes Happen	13:26	\|	Robert	16/09/07

27.	That song	10:26	\|	sweis Melbourne	17/09/07

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