German Smokers Godwin Themselves

[this charming man]

The following AP Story describes how some German Smokers compare themselves to Jews Nazi victims. The have made up t-shirts for their cause. (It appears that the shirts are no longer avialable.)

Are any German members able to comment on this? Is it true?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321986,00.html

The shirt features a yellow Star of David similar to the one Jews were forced to wear under the Nazis. The world "smoker" is written across the star instead of "Jew."

Graumann said the sale of the T-shirt did nothing to help German smokers. Instead, it reminded Germans — Jews and otherwise — of worse times, he said.

"It is unimaginative, brainless and tasteless," he said

[This Guy]

"It is unimaginative, brainless and tasteless,"

Doesn't that describe most emotion based "protest" campaigns? Much of advertising in general for that matter.

But, being a dirty stinky smoker that is still adjusting to the restaurant smoking ban recently enacted in my area, I can sympathize.

I really enjoyed stopping by my favorite restaurant, enjoying a nice meal, and savoring a good cup of coffee and a relaxing smoke on the way to work. Now I have the meal, and have to step outside for the smoke.

I mentioned to a fellow outcast, the other night, that they want to make sure smoking is bad for us, so they are making us go outside in winter weather to do it. That way we all catch pneumonia :(

Yea, I know. It is bad, and we should have better sense. I'm working on it, but it's certainly easier said than done. (or as I like to say, it's easy to quit smoking! I've done it dozens of times!;))

[ingoa]

I am German, I am a smoker and I live in the Frankfurt area, so I affected by the smoking bans.

I never heard about this T-shirt prior to this post. I assume the entire thing is a prank.

[danielk]

I am German, I am a smoker and I live in the Frankfurt area, so I affected by the smoking bans.

I never heard about this T-shirt prior to this post. I assume the entire thing is a prank.
Unfortunately, it seems to be real. The story appears to make the rounds among the German blogs now. The notorious Watchblog Islamophobie immediately jumped on the story for an opportunity to crudely equivocate the campaign with the Mohamed caricatures (http://watchblogislamophobie.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/das-ist-naturlich-was-ganz-anderes/). In response Band of Brothers calls them "Merkbefreit (http://taylorbob.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/merkbefreit/)", for claiming that you'd need a lot of fantasy to associate these yellow stars with the final solution of the Jewish question.

In Germany, you don't compare yourself to victims of genocide just because you feel inconvenienced without expecting a backlash. Whoever came up with this idea is either the most moronic of morons, or likes to play with fire.

ETA: Alright, it's definitely real. They even had a website for the T-Shirt: www.rauchershirt.de (http://www.rauchershirt.de/). The content has now been replaced with a public comment explaining the faux pas.

[Father Dagon]

Why not? The germans can't even report about a minor bus accident on the evening news without referring to the war.