A report from mediabistro.com's 'sibling' blog AgencySpy states that Audi is stirring up controversy with a television campaign that was produced for prime-time viewing during the Super Bowl in the US.

The premise of the campaign is simple and innocent enough. A force known as the Green Police appears in a series of tongue-in-cheek safety announcements to teach people how to make better choices to protect the environment.

Autoblog.com reports that in one advert, the 'officers' arrest people for crimes against the environment. However, drivers of the Audi A3 TDI are praised for their choice of vehicle.

Growing awareness of the adverts has created some confusion. A blogger going by the name Danny Brown was the first to highlight the link between Audi?s Green Police and a Nazi-affiliated branch of the Landespolizei during World War.

Dark past

This unit, the Ordnungspolizei, were also known amongst locals as the 'Green Police' because of the uniforms they wore. Several sources say this group were directly linked to campaigns to exterminate millions of Jews during World War II.

Audi America chief communications officer Jeff Kuhlman told AutoblogGreen that he has spoken with Jewish leaders Abraham Foxman, who is the head of the Anti Defamation League, and Fred Zeidman, chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum, about the adverts and they were of the opinion that there were no problems.

Kuhlman added: "One thing that I think is also needed in order to put this into perspective is the issue of green police versus Ordnungspolizei. Ordnungspolizei is directly translated to mean Order Police. It's more than just the difference between capital letters and small letters, it's official versus nicknames. And in our research not one person drew any other distinction other than "environmental".

"We researched the term. We tested the ad concept with focus groups. We sought input and reaction from key organizations, including the Jewish community, and we sent out a press release that went to thousands of media, and not one reaction.

"I then worked again with key Jewish leaders after the blogger raised the issue, just to make sure that we hadn't missed something, and again, we were reassured that the term is not one that has historical significance, and that reactions to the term are completely in line with our intent ... environmental enforcement."

Differing global views

While Audi seems to have been very thorough with its homework in the United States, a bit of research in Europe might possibly have prompted them to seek an alternative police theme for their adverts.

Iafrica Motoring editor Philip Devine was a guest of Toshiba at a business conference in Zurich, Switzerland in October 2008.

Delegates from France, Netherlands, Germany and Bavaria, who spoke with him during a workshop, all agreed that issues surrounding World War II, Nazis and the Holocaust were still extremely sensitive topics that were best left unmentioned in their home country.

A Toshiba technician from Bavaria told him that: "Many of us still have grandparents that were in the war (World War II), and some of us even have parents that fought in the war. When it comes to the war we say: 'We are very sorry for this' and that is the end of the conversation."

Audi has not yet issued an official statement regarding the adverts and the claimed link to the Ordnungspolizei and there are no reports that the television spots have been pulled.