Amazon needed to promote its expensive new series, The Man in the High Castle, but decking out a 42nd Street train in New York City with Nazi inspired designs wasn’t a good idea. After sparking outrage, the company decided to pull the ads.
The first season of the series, which is based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, went live on Amazon Instant Video late last week. It is set in an alternate history, in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan won World War II.
To promote the show, the MTA actually allowed Amazon to put the design of the show’s American flag - which features a German Reichsadler Eagle Emblem in place of the stars in the blue field - on seats in the 42nd Street train. Other seats on the train feature a flag that’s similar to the one used by Imperial Japan.
The New York Post notes that some people started complaining, with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz telling the Post that the MTA should be “ashamed of themselves” for approving of the campaign. Mayor Bill De Blasio also said it was “irresponsible and offensive to World War II and Holocaust survivors, their families and countless other New Yorkers.”
An MTA spokesman confirmed the Post that Amazon agreed to pull the ads. However, before that decision, MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg told the New York Daily News that they didn’t have any reason to reject the ads in the first place.
“MTA is a government agency and can’t accept or reject ads based on how we feel about them; we have to follow the standards approved by our board,” Lisberg said.
The MTA wouldn’t reveal how much Amazon paid for it, but the shuttle was supposed to be covered in the ads through Dec. 14.