German Advertising Prank About As Funny As ‘Judgment At Nuremberg’

Your pals here at BreakTime have a rather clearly-formed opinion about TV shows playing mean-spirited pranks on innocent schmoes. Simply put: we ain’t fans. And with the world’s ‘gotcha!’ culture getting more gotcha by the day, it was only a matter of time before advertisers started in on the game.

For a rife example, we need look no further than Nivea. In an attempt to hawk its line of deodorant products, the German company recently lured non-suspecting folks into a train station, only to have them believe there was a nationwide manhunt for their capture. You know, via fake — and very convincing — newspaper headlines and TV announcements. ‘Cause when life’s flashing before your panicked eyes, a good deodorant can really come in handy. Hahahah — get it?! How many boxes can we put you down for?

Anyhow, hopefully Nivea saved a few of ‘em for their lawyers, ’cause something tells me they’ll be putting in some pretty stressful overtime for a while.