Volkswagen withdraws Golf car ad that sparked
racism row
Car maker says it is ‘horrified’ by the ad that
featured a large white hand ‘flicking’ a black man
Volkswagen has withdrawn the Golf add which drew
criticism, and says it will investigate it. Photograph: François Lenoir/Reuters
Reuters
Published
onThu 21 May 2020 02.13 BST
Volkswagen
has withdrawn a Golf car advertisement posted on its official Instagram page
that the company admitted was racist and insulting, saying it would investigate
how it came about.
The car
company, which has already seen its reputation tarnished in the past five years
after it admitted cheating diesel emissions tests, said it did not tolerate any
form of racism.
The
advertisement features a woman’s large, pale-skinned hands seeming to push and
then flick a black man away from a shiny new, yellow Golf parked on a street.
The man is flicked into a cafe called “Petit Colon”, a name with colonial
overtones. In the background, jaunty music plays, along with sound effects
resembling a computer game.
German
television noted that the hand could be interpreted as making a “white power”
gesture, while letters that appear on the screen afterwards briefly spell out a
racist slur in German.
Juergen
Stackmann, the VW brand’s board member for sales and marketing, and Elke
Heitmueller, head of diversity management, apologised. “We understand the
public outrage at this. Because we’re horrified, too. This video is an insult
to all achievements of the civil rights movement. It is an insult to every
decent person,” they wrote.
“We at
Volkswagen are aware of the historical origins and the guilt of our company
during the Nazi regime. That is precisely why we resolutely oppose all forms of
hatred, slander/propaganda and discrimination.”
Founded on
orders by Adolf Hitler to build the “people’s car”, VW employed forced
labourers for the Nazi war effort.
A
Volkswagen spokesman said agencies usually produced its advertising campaigns
and it was investigating where the mistake happened.
This
article is more than 4 months old
Volkswagen in 'Dieselgate' settlement talks with
400,000 German owners
Carmaker has compensated VW owners in US and Australia
over emissions-rigging scandal and faces class action in UK
Volkswagen is also facing a class action lawsuit in
the UK. The company admitted in 2015 to manipulating 11m vehicles worldwide to
fool emissions tests.
Rob Davies
@ByRobDavies
Published
onThu 2 Jan 2020 18.24 GMT
Volkswagen
is in discussions over an out-of-court settlement with more than 400,000 German
owners of vehicles that were affected by the carmaker’s “Dieselgate”
emissions-rigging scandal.
Germany’s
VZBV – an umbrella group of consumer rights organisations – said it had entered
talks about a “pragmatic solution in the interests of customers” but stressed
that talks were at a very early stage and would remain confidential.
“There is
no certainty that an agreement will be reached,” the consumer body said in a
joint statement with VW.
Volkswagen
has already compensated VW owners in the US and Australia over the manipulation
of data about the emissions of its diesel vehicles.
It is also
facing a class action lawsuit in the UK, where 90,000 of its customers are
claiming that the company fitted devices designed to cheat clean air laws to
1.2m cars.
The
carmaker, which employs 630,000 people, admitted in 2015 to manipulating 11m
vehicles worldwide to fool emissions tests.
It said
last year that total costs relating to the scandal have soared past £25bn,
while sales of diesel cars have plunged around the world in the wake of the
affair.
In the US
VW pleaded guilty two years ago to criminal charges and paid out $4.3bn
(£3.3bn) in civil and criminal penalties – the largest levied by the US
government against a car company.
Last
September VW settled a multimillion-dollar class action in Australia over the
global diesel emissions scandal and will pay up to Aus$127m (£67.5m) in
compensation to customers. Volkswagen made no admission of liability under the
agreement.
Talks over
a settlement to resolve claims in Germany come just three months after the
legal case got under way. The trial is being held in Braunschweig, close to
Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg headquarters. The regional court had asked VW to
consider opening settlement negotiations by the end of 2019.
The claim
is a declaratory model action, a new form of German legal instrument similar to
US class actions or group litigation orders in the UK. The instrument was
created to allow collective redress for consumers.
A spokesman
for Volkswagen said at the time the company would defend itself against the
claims rigorously, saying it believed the claims were unfounded.
Given the
wide variety of cases under the group action umbrella, it said a mass
settlement was “hard to imagine”.
The novel
nature of the action means the case is expected to last up to four years.
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