(Just in time for Christmas, this would make a GREAT stocking stuffer!!!) An Indian E-Commerce site had, until recently, been carrying a product whose very existence in the 21st century will leave you bewildered. Being sold by a brand called The Blur Store, the product in question was a gold swastika ring, and is described on the website selling it, as "Gold Hitler Ring," believe it or not. Available for purchase on a popular beauty website, the product had not only been named in an inappropriate manner (to say the least) but carried Hitler's Nazi insignia, the Hakenkreuz. Thankfully, a customer spotted it and brought it to people’s notice. Social media, understandably, was not forgiving.
The gaffe, to put it mildly, had gone unnoticed by the brand selling the product as well as the website hosting it. That is, until this morning, when it withdrew the product after much talk on social media initiated by mindful customers. Similarly, the website of the brand selling it, The Blur Store, has also removed the ring. Now, while the product has been withdrawn by both the websites, this situation begs certain questions. For instance, why was this product was even made? And how did someone at The Blur Store think a Nazi ring is just what Indian customers needed? Merchandise is supposed to be a fun way to celebrate something, and normally, Nazism doesn't fall in the category of things we ought to celebrate. Selling, or even producing something that Hitler endorsed, is not exactly a move by masterful, commendable brand strategists, let alone the manufacturers or designers.After all, the strangest part about this situation is that of all the swastikas on the planet, the brand chose to re-create Hitler's 45 degree-rotated one, and even named it Hitler Ring!
Too many Indians, though, are unaware of the horrors of the Holocaust and see Hitler – a man responsible for the murder of 6 million people – as some sort of folk hero. We’ve all seen idiots zoom around on bikes and cars with swastikas on them as symbols of misplaced machismo. People, mass murderers are not heroes. Nazi swastikas are not cute jewellery designs. Somehow, we feel like this shouldn’t have to be spelled out in 2017. Maybe crack open a history book once in a while, guys.