Last but not least: Henkel dry
The German company Henkel has stirred up a lot of trouble in the East and angered Ukraine. The toilet block at the center of the controversy: the Bref Duo Stick scented toilet cleaner.
Russian television - which is consumed by many Ukrainians - ran a commercial advertising the toilet cleaner in question. The problem: the product stuck in the bowl looks like the Ukrainian flag. Blue at the top, yellow at the bottom.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3jDCQxme7M
The result was a (virtual!) shitstorm: the offended ex-Soviets took to Facebook and YouTube to vent their frustration. The explanation given by the responsible Henkel manager Tore Birol that blue stands for hygienic water and yellow for the refreshing scent of lemon (source: SDA) failed to appease the angry Ukrainians. Understandable: there is probably no more unfavorable place for a national flag. So the product was immediately withdrawn from the Eastern market - Russia, Slovakia and Kazakhstan will have to revert to the traditional toilet duck and brush. Incidentally, the Bref Duo Sticks were not sold in Ukraine anyway - as if the clever Henkel marketing department had smelled the lemon-scented roast ahead of time.
The next step will probably be to look for and find new colors. This is unlikely to be easy, as most of the color combinations are occupied by flags. An emergency solution, which is certainly still available: brown/yellow. As a little help, here is an overview of "The flags of the world" (as of 2010).
Thomas Häusermann
