GERMAN CAR giant Volkwagen has removed an ad from its Instagram account and apologized after it said it was “racist.”

The controversial advert, which showed a large, white hand appearing to push a dark-skinned man around a parked VW Golf, before flicking him into a doorway, has been widely condemned on social media. 

Mimic

The scene is supposed to mimic videos put up on social media where one person appears to be controlling another like a puppet

The man is manoeuvred away from the yellow VW Golf and flicked into a café called “Petit Colon”, which is an actual location in Buenos Aires.

However, the name “Petit Colon” translates both from French to English and from French to German as “Little Settler” or “Little Colonist”.

Twitter users also pointed out that when the German slogan “Der Neue Golf” (which means “The New Golf”) fades in, the letters which fade in first spell out a word in German, “neger”, which can be used as the German equivalent of the n-word.

Response to criticism

When anger over the ad first emerged on Instagram the company initially VW responded to criticism by saying that the origin of the people depicted was not relevant, and that it was “surprised and shocked that our Instagram story could be so misunderstood”.

However, it later backtracked.

A VW spokesperson said told CNBC via email: “We firmly distance ourselves from the video and apologize sincerely. We will investigate how this could have happened — and draw the necessary consequences.”

Bernd Osterloh, VW’s workers’ representative and supervisory board member, posted on LinkedIn that he was “ashamed.”

Ashamed

He said: “The racist clip for #Golf … makes us stunned. I’m ashamed of this spot — and I’m sure I’m speaking for the whole workforce. The clip is disgusting.” 

It is not the first time that a Volkwagen ad has caused controversy over accusations of racism.

In 2013 the firm created a Superbowl advert with the character of a white man speaking with a Jamaican accent, telling colleagues to be more relaxed in their approach to life.