Time magazine is to publish an unprecedented full-page apology for running a Nazi-style advertisement of “appalling taste” in its British edition last week.
The ad, for a London slide show company, showed a Nazi podium backed by pink and pastel blue swastika flags. The caption read: “Poor use of color can ruin your presentation. Using inappropriate colors can completely take the edge off an aggressive presentation.”
It promised to show how “special effects can excite a flagging audience” and “how symbols can be used to explain ideas.”
It added: “We can’t promise to get your name in the history books, but it should find its way into a client’s notebook.”
Appalled readers and Labor Parliament member Greville Janner protested to the company, the Hatton Garden-based Presentation company, to Time magazine and the advertising agency, Tilby and Leaves.
Janner said the advertisement was in “appalling taste,” and that he was shocked that Time had published it but glad they had agreed to publish an apology.
Other newspapers and magazines turned down the advertisement. Time apologized for the lapse, saying it “maintains strict procedures for acceptance of advertising materials, but regrettably our system failed.”
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