Mitsubishi Launches "jihad" On The Automotive Market.

[Mr. Oizo]

freedom of speech is a wonderful thing

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A car dealership's planned radio ad that declared ''a jihad on the automotive market'' has drawn sharp criticism but will not be changed, the business said over the weekend.

Several stations rejected the Dennis Mitsubishi spot, which advertises vehicles that can ''comfortably seat 12 jihadists in the back.''

''Our prices are lower than the evildoers' every day. Just ask the pope!'' the ad says. Dealership president Keith Dennis said it was ''fair game'' to poke ''a little fun at radical extremists.''

CINCINNATI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A car commercial proclaiming a jihad on the U.S. auto market and offering "Fatwa Fridays" with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said on Sunday.

The radio advertisement for the Dennis Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, has "a whole jihad theme," said Adnan Mirza, director of the Columbus office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"They are planning on launching a jihad on the automotive market and their representatives would be wearing burqas ... ," Mirza said. "They mentioned the pope in there and also about giving rubber swords out to the kiddies -- really just reprehensible-type comments."

Details of the radio ad, which has not yet been broadcast, have been reported in the local media, but officials at the dealership declined to comment about the content of the radio spot.

Two employees at the dealership said they had been deluged with calls about the commercial.

"The ad has has never been released, it is not out for public listening," said one employee who declined to give his name. He would not say whether the dealership had changed its mind about airing the commercial.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp. could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mirza said several local radio stations had already rejected the ad and he hoped the controversy would convince the dealership to rethink its sales strategy.

He also said the Council on American-Islamic Relations would likely contact the dealer to "offer some kind of cultural or sensitivity awareness training."

[Rezz]

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp. could not immediately be reached for comment.

Like they'd give a shit what a dealership did on the other side of the world...

[scathing]

They're representing the company. They should give a shit.

[Midol]

Political Correctness is over rated.

Anyway, I dislike religion and have no respect for the pope so I am biased.

[mad082]

They're representing the company. They should give a shit.

the guys in tokyo wouldn't give a shit what the yanks think. they'd just tell them to contact mitsubishi in america.

[MADGT4]

They're representing the company. They should give a shit.

I used to work for Customer Relations for Mitsubishi here in Adelaide at head office.

I can tell you right now Japan wouldn't care.

For example Mits Motor Corp is different from Mits Motors Aus Ltd.

We would get all kinda of complaint with this and that being threatened and basically at the end of the day MMAL supplies cars to the dealers who are a franchise, and we didn't get invloved of the day to day running of a dealership.

End of the day, don't like it speak to that dealership, thats all we would say, unless otherwise.

Same would go most likely in this situation

[thorpe84]

lol, kind of funny in a non offending way

[someonestolecc]

Rezz and everyone else are right in Japan this would be just silly whiteboys and silly arabs doing silly things. Being fair the scathing said 'should' which is a fair point we don't need more posts saying it's not reality

Really, I lolled when I saw this- I think this is a great example of something that far outweighs even the free speech argument. This just goes to prove that you can always laugh at a concept. Public discourse at the start of the 21st century needs more of this concept.