by emad » Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:19 pm
What do Ceausescu, Hitler and Bush have in common? OK, sorry. But what else do they have in common?<br><br>By Michael Leidig in Bucharest<br>(Filed: 25/09/2005)<br><br>It seemed like a good idea at the time: a light-hearted advertising campaign to persuade Romanians to adopt a stray dog, using pictures of three well-known 'historical figures’ with their pets. <br><br>Posters across the capital showed Adolf Hitler, Nicolae Ceausescu — Romania’s former dictator — and GeorgeW Bush, over the slogan: 'A dog loves you just the way you are.’ <br><br>But the American Embassy did not find the association of Mr Bush with two hated dictators so amusing and, hours after The Sunday Telegraph sought advertising agency McCann Ericsson’s reaction to the campaign, company workers had ripped the posters down. <br><br>Romania has been plagued by packs of dogs since President Ceausescu, an animal lover whose security service tortured and murdered thousands, banned the killing of strays. Hitler also could not abide cruelty to animals. <br><br>The Romanian National Committee for the Protection of Animals had at first said that its campaign would show that 'even the most hated dictators on this planet received love from their dogs’. Yesterday, the advertising agency denied that Mr Bush and his Scottish terrier, Barney, had ever been depicted on posters for the campaign. <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/25/wrom25.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/25/ixworld.html">www.telegraph.co.uk/news/...world.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br> <br> <br><br>© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005. Terms & Conditions of reading.<br>Commercial information. Privacy and Cookie Policy. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
