Germany became the #1 economy in the Eurozone utilizing millions of foreign workers that rebuilt the country after World War II.
After the financial unification of Europe took place, large German corporations such as Siemens further established their status quo by securing large contracts, some of which were achieved via the means of bribing government officials.
Currently, the financial straits that the Greek economy is facing are a direct result of years of abuse of power by a corrupt political system that ensured large companies such as Siemens retained their monopolistic contracts at any cost to the Greek consumer.
The German hubris towards the Greeks reached new heights today, after an online campaign of German car rental company Sixt was revealed. The ad is both insensitive and provocative as it invites Greeks to take advantage of the low Sixt rates and spend their “drachmas”.
The Sixt.de campaign provokes Greeks both by use of imagery and content.
As a member of the Eurozone, Greece is using the euro; the old currency of drachma is not legal tender since 2001.
The offensive ad, seen at www.Sixt.de depicts a BMW in front of the Acropolis, with the words “Dear Greeks, we accept drachmas again. The BMW1 cabrio for only 26,900 drachmas per day.”
There is no such indication of an exit from the Eurozone for Greece and no return to drachma is even considered; such an exit would destabilize both the Eurozone and the global economy.
Sixt Germany has received an official complaint by the Greek embassy in Berlin, and the Sixt Facebook page is getting flooded by the justified responses of Greeks, both in Germany and in Greece.
Clearly, an edgy campaign that will further raise the political thermometer between Germany and Greece this summer.
Sixt has previously been involved in a similar type of shock publicity.
In 2010 Sixt suggested that customers “do like Mrs Bruni (wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy) and opt for a small French model”.
Relax dude, Germans are paying dearly for this fun they are having. Give me a million $ and make fun of me. How much has Greece been getting for 30 years from EU? Zacktly.
Welfaris Statis – Judging from your location you have no clue what you’re talking about. Sixt is a private company based in Germany.
The countries of the Eurozone absorb millions of euro/dollars every year from various funds made available. If anything, Greece has been a laggard in utilizing these available funds!
Don’t add insult to injury when you just read sensationalist media and aren’t aware of the facts.
Germans have some nerve, after causing 2 world wars. They should be more humble despite their financial status.
70 years later, Germans still love the Acropolis! Anti-Sixt ad.
Man, those lazy Greeks should get their asses up and stop complaining about this nice little ad.
All this Nazi bla bla is just lame and those guys know that their funny supported life is now over and that they have to WORK!
Don’t buy at Greek stores and mind Greek as a holiday country!
That’s funny, Peter. Your mother, sister and wife all go to Greece every year. I wonder if they like the Greek sausage as much as you do 🙂
Greeks work more hours for less money than the Germans. Now give back the stolen Greek gold from the nazi era or STFU.
Hahaha, what a way to commit financial suicide in Greece!
No Greek will ever rent from Sixt again, in Greece or abroad.
@savant: Yes, you got it…we just wanted to start the third with a Sixt campaign…you are just to clever for us… 😉
When the Germans in the 30s said for the Poles “they don’t know how to lick stamps” the theater went down. A little later, during the famine of 1943 in occupied Greece” the notorious phrase “nicht fai” meaning “no dinner”, was made up by them, in a theatrical show in the Pallas theater of Athens, requisited by the Wehrmacht for the entertainment of German troops. For years after the war this type of humour was not allowed but now their government allows it and they are very happy. In Anglo-Saxon nations, France, Italy, Spain, you may come across people with lots of different political views but they don’t do this so to most people it looks very strange. This car rental company made this ad knowing it’s no good for their Greek branch of operations, but they think it is good for the low classes in Germany. It’s one of many recent German racialist or near-racialist jokes,
Stupid Germans, When we had civilazation you use to stay in caves and on trees and if you want drahmas call Mr. Hitler he killed a lot of families in Greece in order to stole their money and monuments !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who cares what some stupid narrow-minded Germans wrote…it is wrong to fall in this trap and bring attention to them- that’s exactly what advertisers want…f*ck them…noone should care what they think or say. You don’t need much brain to see this…
Well, “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” comes to mind…
Looks like a remake of “300” in the works.
26.900 drachmas per day for a German cabrio is a bargain.
How much is this in (Drittes) Reich-smark?
@Chris- Not sure about the Reichsmarks but I guess this can’t be more than 1,5 GTA.
A price that no German can resist to.
(GTA = Golden Teeth from Auschwitz )
Sixt has now removed the offending ad from their homepage and has deleted all the comments that were left yesterday and today on their Facebook page.
Let that be a lesson that such acts won’t be allowed without repercussions.