Last but not least: Ariel's brown underwear

Anyone who carelessly uses the number 88 in Germany must expect a headwind. In the language of the neo-Nazis, the double eight has always stood for "Heil Hitler", i.e. two times the eighth letter of the alphabet (counted from the back: SS). You can print "88" on a T-shirt, but not "Heil Hitler". Most people actually know this. The marketing department at Procter & Gamble seems to be an exception. It recently launched "Ariel 88" promotional packs. It was foreseeable that it wouldn't be long before there was scorn, outrage and incomprehension - social media picked up on the topic in no time at all.

Image: Twitter.com

To celebrate the World Cup year, Ariel gave the packs, which normally last for 83 washes, five free portions. The P&G stars explain why, for example, seven extra cycles were not chosen. This would have resulted in the thankful number 90 - the year in which Germany won the World Cup for the last time.

Of course, in a case like this, the question arises as to whether a shitstorm can also be calculated. After all, the whole of Germany now knows that Ariel packs are particularly large at the moment. No media outlet did not report on the "advertising mishap". "Very strange, the whole thing" writes W&V on the occasion of Ariel's announced withdrawal. P&G tweeted namely on May 8, the "pack with unintentional ambiguity" has not been delivered since Monday. The fact that May 8 is the holiday marking the end of the Second World War fitted in with the story, just as Ariel had also prominently printed "New Concentration" on the packs in question. Presumably no calculation after all - rather clumsy creativity and unfortunate coincidences. Or as the South German Newspaper said: P&G's advertisers can only be understood by "those who work day and night in such a company and are not often allowed around people".

By the way: football shirts with the number 88 actually exist. National team captain Gökhan Inler wears them in Italy. But not because he sympathizes with right-wing ideas, but because his favourite and lucky number eight was already taken. And then he got so used to the number that he kept it even after moving from Udinese to Napoli.

Thomas Häusermann