Amazon yank Nazi-, Imperial Japan-themed TV ads from N.Y. subway
The New York City Subway 42nd Street shuttle train is viewed Tuesday covered in symbols from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, to promote the Amazon TV series, 'The Man in the High Castle.' | AFP-JIJI

Amazon yank Nazi-, Imperial Japan-themed TV ads from N.Y. subway

Reuters

NEW YORK – Amazon.com Inc. on Monday agreed to pull advertisements for a new television show featuring Nazi-inspired imagery from New York City’s subway system, a transit official said, hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the company to do so.

The advertisements for “The Man in the High Castle” completely wrap the seats, walls and ceilings of one train on the heavily utilized shuttle line that connects Times Square and Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.

The show depicts an alternate reality in which Nazi Germany and Japan have divided control over the United States after winning World War II.

The advertisements include a version of the American flag with a German eagle and iron cross in place of the stars, as well as a stylized flag inspired by Imperial Japan.

Representatives for Amazon and its television production arm did not respond to requests for comment.

The shuttle train ads had been scheduled to run until Dec. 6, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In addition, Amazon has paid for 260 subway station posters to be displayed until Dec. 6.

An MTA official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Amazon had asked for the shuttle train advertisements, but not the posters, to be removed.

In a statement earlier on Monday, de Blasio called on Amazon to remove the shuttle train advertisements, calling them “irresponsible and offensive to World War II and Holocaust survivors, their families, and countless other New Yorkers.”

The MTA had said the advertisements do not violate the agency’s content-neutral guidelines, which ban political ads.

The show is an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick 1962 novel, “The Man in the High Castle” that describes a version of history in which the Axis powers win World War II and divide the United States into a Nazi-controlled East and a Japan-run West. All 10 episodes became available on the Amazon Prime streaming service on Nov. 20.

Frank Spotnitz, the show’s creator and executive producer, told Entertainment Weekly he agreed with critics that the advertisements could be seen as offensive.

“It’s very difficult with a show with subject matter like this to market it tastefully, so I understand they’re walking a very difficult line,” the magazine quoted him as saying on its website. “If they had asked me, I would have strongly advised them not to do it.”

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The New York City Subway 42nd Street shuttle train is viewed Tuesday covered in symbols from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, to promote the Amazon TV series, 'The Man in the High Castle.' | AFP-JIJI

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  • disqus_vBekJrf7g5

    A great book, and a great show (even though the show departs greatly from the book).
    I’m happily reassured that despite Abe’s best efforts to coerce and intimidate foreign academics and journalists into helping him white-wash and revise Japans war-time bahavior, Americans still find Imperial Japan as toxic as Nazi Germany.

  • Frido

    This could only happen in a country where totalitarianism never has put a foot on. Amazon and their supporters from the transportation office would not coquet with totalitarian systems if they actually have suffered from them. At least New York City’s Mayor showed common sense and respect for the victims’ fates.

    • Don Corleone

      NY is a totalitarian state, don’t let this little bit of PC overwhelm the spirit.
      Each state in the union has it’s own set of rules, some quite drastic in the level of freedom allowed.

  • Squidhead

    I thought it was the new Trump flag.

  • Hendrix

    That imperial Japanese flag is still being flown in Japan, at baseball stadiums and on the Japanese navy boats still.

    • disqus_vBekJrf7g5

      Yeah. As always, try the ‘If it was Germany test’;
      If Germany still used the swastika in football stadiums, oh, wait, that’d be illegal in Germany.
      And Japan still doesn’t understand why the neighbors don’t like it.

      • kaidai

        Up until just this year, the confederate battle flag was flown at the state capitol in South Carolina and its still part of the Mississippi state flag. Also, watch any NASCAR event and the confederate flag shows up just as prominently as the US flag.
        Go anywhere in the South – Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma , etc.. and you’ll see Confederate flags everywhere. I’ve seen many here in supposedly liberal California.
        Also, GOP presidential candidates like Trump represent , even though they are a minority, a very large part of the American electorate.
        What would a US with President Trump look like?

      • anoninjapan

        That’s because up until the ban, the penny had not dropped how much association the flag has with slavery discrimination and brutality, to those that were oppressed for decades/centuries by its representation/association, with those whom have the power to ban it, though were not affected by it. To para phrase, it’s the flag stupid.

        And that’s why you don’t get it too…and wish to obfuscate the issues, just as any Japanese or apologist attempts to do. Just like those saying there was nothing wrong or emotive about the confederate flag.

        Progress is seen as learning the lessons of history and making changes to prevent such events and actions from occurring again. Banning the confederate flag has been regrettably delayed for many decades, despite the large numbers wishing it to be so, for the aforementioned reasons.

        Note how the apologists and Japanese are running out of obfuscations from other countries as their excuses to point the finger??…What’s Japan’s excuse this time…

  • Don Corleone

    Now the MTA will remove the one spotless subway car form the line. Thanks.

    • AmIJustAPessimistOrWhat?

      “Spotless” is in the eye of the beholder.

  • AmIJustAPessimistOrWhat?

    Since 2013 New York has a policy of taking graffiti painted trains out of service until the graffiti is removed. I don’t really see much difference between that and removing this “in your face” advertising.