Mercedes Benz is now courting the communist mass-murderer luxury vehicle market

Up to now, if a communist party commissar wanted to travel in luxury, he bought a Zil. Apparently seeing an untapped market (driven perhaps by the popularity of Obamunism?), Mercedes Benz is now hawking their cars under the rubric of Che Guevara.

Yes, that Che Guevara, the one who murdered his way to infamy.

According to company Chairman Dieter Zetsche good old Che was also a big proponent of ride sharing.

Let's all carpool to the gulag!

Really, I think I'm gonna be sick.

Mercedes wouldn't dare delve into their own questionable corporate past by slapping their logo onto Heinrich Himmler's Waffen SS uniform. So why on earth is it even remotely tolerable that they're invoking an equivalently loathsome image of communist atrocities?

I'll tell you why. Communism gets a pass among the hoi polloi; it's fashionable to be a revolutionary, even when you're selling soap or cars. Nobody wants to talk about the victims of communism; they want to romanticize Marx and Lenin's egalitarian facade without having to worry too much about where the bodies are buried.

Allow me to rain on their parade.

Che Guevara, not to put too fine a point on it, was a psychopath whose sadistic lust for blood was not easily quenched. He killed for pleasure.

And he was a most efficient executioner at a time when Fidel Castro needed to rapidly exterminate his "enemies." He was also a virulent racist; Che's bloodlust was equaled only by his hatred for Black people, whom he labeled "indolent and lazy."

But hey, I'm not a marketing genius, so maybe this is really what sells cars in the year 2012. Mass murderer chic is sexy? I guess we'll know for sure when we see ads for Chevy Trucks starring Timothy McVeigh.

UPDATE 12 Jan 2012 10:48:
Steve Burri nails the perfect pun: Oh, Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Merchedes-Benz....

Posted at 21:47 by Chris Wysocki   [/news]   Comments | Perm Link |
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