Amazon pulls ‘Nazi’ TV show ads from NYC subway after complaints

Advertisements featuring imagery from dystopian TV show ‘The Man in the High Castle’ will be pulled from New York City subway trains. Amazon made the decision after numerous complaints on social media and a request from NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Commuters using the subway recently may have felt as if Adolf Hitler had never been defeated. The interior of trains has been decorated with symbols from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, all courtesy of an Amazon ad campaign.

Numerous pictures that have been released on social media show a ‘Nazified’ American flag, a Nazi ‘Reichsadler’ eagle, and a Rising Sun flag used by the Japanese empire during WWII. The insignia can all be seen on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 42nd Street shuttle.

Reportedly, at least 260 posters have covered trains running from Grand Central to Times Square. The posters, however, did not feature any swastikas.

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The Nazi propaganda was conceived by online retailer Amazon to promote its new dystopian show 'The Man in the High Castle'. Based on a famous novel by Philip K. Dick, the series shows an alternative history of the world in which the Axis powers (Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan) won World War II.

However, not everyone was satisfied with the Nazi victory (even hypothetical) which has been promoted on the subway.

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“Half the seats in my car had Nazi insignia inside an American flag, while the other half had the Japanese flag in a style like the World War II design,” one subway rider, Ann Toback, told Gothamist. “So I had a choice, and I chose to sit on the Nazi insignia because I really didn’t want to stare at it.”

Social media users also wrote that they are perplexed and uncomfortable with the posters.

Amazon initially did not comment on Nazi imagery in the trains. The advertisement is reportedly planned to be on New York subway trains until December 14.

The critically acclaimed TV series debuted in January, with the pilot quickly becoming the most-watched original content produced by Amazon. The full 10-episode run was released on November 20.