Dubai's MBC slammed for Hitler advert

Dubai-based broadcaster MBC has been slammed for using images of Adolf Hitler to promote its roster of movie programming, according to a US lobbyist group.

The Saudi Arabian-owned free-to-air network, which was the first of its kind in the region, uses clips of the Nazi dictator taken from the film ‘Inglourious Basterds’.

Arabic subtitles displayed below Hitler read: “Look at the achievements of MBC Action. They will control the entire region.  They are preparing for a campaign called ‘September to Remember’,” the Anti-Defamation League claimed.

ADL, a New York-based lobbyist group which opposes anti-Semitism, urged the network to take the advert off the air.

“This offensive and outrageous campaign trivializes the Holocaust by turning Hitler into a cartoonish poster child,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director. “Why would a Saudi media outlet want to associate itself with one of history’s most demonic mass murderers?”

A spokesperson for MBC told Arabian Business that the advert had only been broadcast on one channel and had now been removed.

Two years ago the founder of Dubai-based fitness firm found himself in hot water in similar circumstances after the company spurred outraged by using images of a notorious Nazi concentration camp in advertising campaign.

The Circuit Factory was blasted by users on social media sites Twitter and Facebook after posting an image of the Auschwitz death camp with the slogan; ‘Kiss your calories goodbye.’

An estimated 3m people were killed at the World War II concentration camp.