*NEWSBITES
Dirk Nowitzki has a new ad out for a German bank that has unleashed a furor on Facebook. The NBA champion’s alleged faux pas: eating a healthy slice of sausage.
The ad for the Ing-DiBa bank shows the basketball star visiting a butcher shop while on a trip back to his native Germany. In the shop an elderly lady behind the counter gives Nowitzki a slice of wurst to sample. A propos of wurst-eating she asks him: “What did we always used to say?” she asks the 2.13 meter (7-foot) basketball whiz just as he is about to munch his sausage. “So you grow big and strong,” Nowitzki replies.
First impressions of the ad are that it is folksy and nostalgic. But take a second look and that’s when it hits. What is the butcher shop lady giving the player recently voted German Athlete of the Year? Wurst! Dead and ground-up animal! It was enough to unleash a barrage of complaints by vegetarians on the bank’s Facebook page. The bank responded by appealing to followers to deal with the issue with the “greatest possible respect.”
If only Nowitzki had stayed with his old ad, which showed him throwing coffee beans into glasses. Although – if you think about that… Don’t coffee beans have feelings too?
Read the full article in German by Lars Wallrodt
Photo – Youtube
*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations