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LEARN HEBREW

Marks & Spencer drops Bryan Ferry as its icon after comments on Nazis
Updated: 14/May/2007 11:33
The retailer, founded by Russian Jewish refugee Michael Marks, was urged to consider its relationship with the singer.
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LONDON (EJP)---British veteran singer Bryan Ferry has been be dropped as one of the faces of a multi-million pound advertising campaign by Marks & Spencer after his controversial comments about the Nazis, the Daily telegraph reported on Monday.

The musician is no longer being used in the commercials for its Autograph range which has been a key factor in its re-emergence as a major force in High Street fashion.

The frontman of 1970s band Roxy Music was forced to apologise last month after he praised the architecture and propaganda films of the Third Reich and admitted he calls his west London studio his “Fuhrerbunker”, a name for the underground rooms in Berlin where Adolf Hitler killed himself in 1945.

The interview in a German magazine caused outrage in the Jewish community and triggered a motion at the House of Commons, the British parliament, urging shoppers to boycott M&S and refuse to buy Ferry’s albums.

The retailer, founded by Russian Jewish refugee Michael Marks, was urged to consider its relationship with the singer.

Ferry, who is known for his sharp dress sense and hits such as "Virginia Plain" and "Love Is The Drug", is no longer being used and there are no negotiations for a new contract.

In the interview in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag, Ferry, 61, said: "The Nazis knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves."

He went on to praise the work of the film maker Leni Riefenstahl, who was notorious for her Nazi propaganda work, and the architecture of Albert Speer, who was Hitler’s favourite designer.

"Leni Riefenstahl’s movies and Albert Speer’s buildings and the mass parades and the flags - just amazing. Really beautiful," he said.

Apologise

Ferry later issued a public statement in which he said: "I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective. I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent."

Lord Janner, former MP and former chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, has welcomed the decision not to use Ferry in any more campaigns.

He said: "This does not surprise me and if I were working with M&S I would have done the same. His comments were highly offensive."

Marks and Spencer said: "We haven’t decided what we are going to do with our menswear advertising. It is under review. The decision hasn’t been made. However, its highly unlikely that we would ever use anybody for more than two seasons of advertising anyway."

The latest quarterly figures show a seven per cent improvement in sales for M&S which have been partly attributed to the retailer’s marketing campaigns featuring Ferry, Twiggy, the 1960s model, the models Erin O’Connor and Lizzie Jagger and Dame Shirley Bassey, the singer.







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