I see that former billionaire Tony, sorry, Sir Anthony, O'Reilly has become the latest Irish industrial titan to go belly up. Maybe now I'll see him in the queue the next time I buy rashers at my local Aldi. Sir Anthony always believed his particular genius (he saw himself pretty much as a genius in everything really) lay with brands. Give me a good brand, he'd say, and I can make billions.
I wonder what he'd do had he had the chance with the greatest branding triumph of them all: The Holocau$t™. It may surprise some of you to know that this marketing miracle came into being as late as 1971. For example both De Gaulle and Churchill never mentioned it in their war memoirs, both written in the late forties and early fifties. In fact prior to 1971 the word itself would have meant nothing to the average person. They'd have asked 'what holocaust are you talking about?'. The swine.
I wonder what he'd do had he had the chance with the greatest branding triumph of them all: The Holocau$t™. It may surprise some of you to know that this marketing miracle came into being as late as 1971. For example both De Gaulle and Churchill never mentioned it in their war memoirs, both written in the late forties and early fifties. In fact prior to 1971 the word itself would have meant nothing to the average person. They'd have asked 'what holocaust are you talking about?'. The swine.
That all changed after a study group at the Jewish Documentation Centre in Vienna came up with the wheeze that gave birth to The Holocaust (capital T, capital H....... that's important) and a branding miracle was born. And boy, what a brand! For comparatively little expenditure it's helped extract billions from the unfortunate German taxpayers and has rendered any criticism of Jews as the worst of all offences. It embedded the meme of Jews as an innocent sorely oppressed victim group which must never be criticised. ('Don't hit me with The Holocau$t™ in my arms'). And they've lived royally off it ever since.
The marketing strategy was implemented by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and related corporate affiliates. And as with any good branding strategy it's developed a range of spin-offs which both underpin the main brand and contribute to targets in their own right. Hence Auschwitz (roll of drums, sombre music), single word, punchy, memorable....classical marketing. There are dozens of others, Nazis, Anne Frank, family fleeing from the Nazis, gas chambers, evil Germans, Hitler as a multi-purpose villain straight from central casting who can be dusted down and wheeled out any time the goyim look like getting stroppy.
Yes, without doubt the greatest branding triumph of all time. Sir Anthony would have been proud.





