Austrian Airlines: We’re Sorry We Quoted Nazis in Our Marketing
Oct 1st, 2009 | By Jared Blank(Thanks a million to Benet…)
Austrian Airlines has apologized for using a phrase found on a gate at the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp. The marketing team who put together a travel catalogue for the airline said that they were not aware that the phrase “Jedem das Seine” (meaning, “to each his own”) was linked to the Nazis. The ad for flights to Paris read, “Jedem die Seine,” referring to the Seine river in Paris.
However, they continue to use “Springtime for Hitler” in their ads for April flights to Frankfurt. (No they don’t).
Hmm, “Jedem das Seine” is still a commonly used phrase, and I think most people wouldn’t know the connection to Buchenwald. The “Arbeit macht frei” phrase is a lot more notorious and well-known for its use at the gates of several camps.
Looking at Wikipedia, Austrian Airlines wasn’t the first that used the phrase in advertisement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedem_das_Seine