“You’re a little short for a stormtrooper, aren’t you?”

Most excellent.

HT: Zemi.

via usa today:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is apologizing for a newspaper ad featuring a photo of a book-burning in Nazi-era Germany. The ad was published in a northern Arizona newspaper by a political action committee the company helped fund.

The company was writing an apology letter Friday to the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona and will run an apology ad this weekend in Flagstaff’s Arizona Daily Sun, which carried the original ad, said Daphne Moore, director of community affairs for Wal-Mart.

“It was a terrible mistake and one that we sincerely regret,” Moore said.

The ad showed a historic photo of people throwing books into a large fire. A swastika is clearly visible near the center of the photo.

The text below it reads: “Should we let government tell us what we can read?”

Moore said the ad was prepared by an outside agency but reviewed and approved by Wal-Mart. “Whoever the individual who approved it was, was not aware of the historical context of the picture,” she said.

Look, I suppose that seeing a photo of a bunch of people throwing books into a fire, the Wal-Mart exec who approved the ad might have thought, “Oh, look, they’re all enjoying Farenheit 451.” But how much of a dumbass do you have to be to not be aware of the historical context of a swastika?

And even if you really didn’t know what the swastika was, would you really want to compare your plight to the systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe — and especially for profit? I don’t think Wal-Mart’s board of directors is being pushed into the gas chamber.

And does anyone buy Wal-Mart’s excuse of, “Oh, it was a rogue and/or stupid employee?” I don’t. Publicity - even of the bad variety - is good.

Labor Blog has a good take on it, and Daily Kos has an entry from the Arizona Daily Sun that’ll just piss you off.