With Netflix’ new zombie gore series Santa Clarita Diet, you pretty much get what you signed up for.
The black comedy stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as married couple Sheila and Joel, both real estate agents in Santa Clarita, California. The couple’s lives take a dark turn after Sheila goes through a transformation – becoming a zombie who feeds on human flesh.
The show has mainly been taken in good humour, but this week the Deutscher Werberat, Germany’s advertising regulator, received a number of complaints (more than 50 so far) after a local food-inspired promo for Santa Clarita Diet turned people off their food in Germany.
The complaints focused on a Netflix billboard featuring a dismembered finger, chopped up and covered in curry to resemble the German sausage dish currywurst.
Genius ?? #netflix #santaclaritadiet #berlin #currywurst #potsdamerplatz #advertising #tvs… https://t.co/uwxxIRUPwk pic.twitter.com/3Kts684us8
— Verytte (@Verytte_) February 16, 2017
To add insult to, er, injury, branded food trucks handed out free currywurst in a number of locations.
A Deutscher Werberat spokesperson told Business Insider that in most of the complaints they received, the Netflix ad had been described as ‘offensive to children and young people, fear-evoking, and disgusting’.
The ads have now been pulled. Still, they haven’t put us off our currywurst.
