Mercedes-Benz not impressed by film school video

As society becomes increasingly desensitized to sex and violence, among other things, it is becoming increasingly difficult to truly shock the masses. As a result, filmmakers and advertisers are continually pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not. The atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during the second World War have typically been off limits for obvious reasons. Until that is, the release of the incredibly well done Hollywood flick Inglorious Basterds.

Quentin Tarantino is a unique talent who has a knack of working around the most delicate topics and making the most horrific topics funny. Film students Tobia Haase, Jan Mettler and Lydia Lohse obviously hoped they were following in Tarantino’s footsteps when they created a spec film ad for a project depicting what might happen if machines had souls. In the spot, a Mercedes-Benz C-Class “detects dangers before they come up” and runs over a young boy as his mother cries “Adolf!”

Needless to say, Mercedes-Benz was not amused by the video and has forced the addition of several disclaimers to distance themselves from it. The rather well-done video has been viewed close to 2.5 million times since being posted on August 23.