Store Owners Says He Didn’t Realize Who Hitler Was When He Named His Store Hitler – Swastika Included

It just needs to be said, and said right away, that this is obviously one of the worst attempts at viral marketing ever in the history of the world.  It has to be, because the only other alternative is that a store owner in India not only didn’t know who Hitler was when he names his clothing store, but that the swastika he used to dot the “i” for his sign was yet again another shocking surprise to him.

Having only been open for 10 tens at this point, the owners are standing by their story that they had no clue what they were doing, as Yahoo News reported that “Shah [one of the two store owners] insisted that until the store opened he did not know who Adolf Hitler was and that Hitler was a nickname given to the grandfather of his store partner because “he was very strict”.

This of course has the Jewish community in the area rightfully upset, and they are requesting that the signs be taken down and the name of the store be changed.  The owners of the store have agreed to do so, but only if someone else pays for the cost of the new sign which is estimated to be at around $2,700 or 150,000 rupees.

The outlet sells Western wear, and as Yahoo points out Shah stood by his story that “I didn’t know how much the name would disturb people,” he told AFP by telephone from Ahmedabad. “It was only when the store opened I learnt Hitler had killed six million people.”

So as members of the very small Jewish community in Ahmedabad try to deal with this situation with the help of the Israeli Embassy, one has to wonder if these shop owners were just incredibly stupid, naive or completely evil geniuses to have thought up a plan that got their store international attention.

There’s nothing like free advertising, is there?

Jeromie Williams Eats The Internet For Breakfast