Porsche elicited outrage over the weekend after keen observers recognized the company had edited a historic Christian landmark out of its new advertisement. Although the German company has issued an apology and taken down the video, questions persist about the motivations behind the company’s virtual iconoclasm.
The German company, owned by the Volkswagen Group, recently put out a video celebrating 60 “very fast years” of its signature two-door sports cars, the latest of which goes for over $290,000.
In the original iconoclastic version of the video — which has been rendered private on YouTube by the company but saved by one Twitter user — the car whizzes through the decades, years, and various locales, interrupted by the captions, “No matter how fast you move forward … never forget where you come from.”
Despite this plea to remember the past, viewers noticed that the company saw fit to erase one key piece of history from memory.
As the 911 speeds past the 25th Abril Bridge, which connects the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon to the municipality Almada, a pedestal can be seen in the background without its historic statue.
That 269-foot base has been holding up the iconic Cristo Rei (“Christ the King”) statue since before the first Porsche 911 took to European asphalt.
After World War II — and the conclusion of Porsche’s days manufacturing war machines for the Nazi Reich, likely with forced labor — Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon Don Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira ordered this monument be made, taking inspiration from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The statue of Jesus Christ was intended as thanks to God for sparing Portugal from the ravages of the war, according to Lonely Planet.
Reas more at: www.theblaze.com