Amazon to Remove Nazi Themed Ads from Times Square Shuttle Cars

The advertising was wrapped around the seats, walls and ceilings of one train on the shuttle line that connects Times Square and Grand Central Terminal.

But fiction or not some people were disturbed, such as Ann Toback, the director of a 123-year-old American Jewish organization that works to promote social justice, who happened to take the shuttle on the first day of the campaign. Although one MTA official said the company itself had asked for the ad to be pulled, an Amazon.com representative contradicted that claim.

Executives at Amazon were not available for immediate comment. The designs features the stripes of the flag of the United States, but replaced the stars with the Iron Cross and the Rising Sun, which are symbols of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan.

The Man In The High Castle is based on the Philip K Dick novel which imagines a dystopian world where the Axis powers – Germany and Japan – had won World War Two instead of the Allies.

“Our concern is that the Nazi imagery that is being used as part of this ad campaign comes without any context”, he said in a statement to FOX411. NY City Mayor Bill deBlasio called the ads “irresponsible and offensive” in remarks provided to the NY Daily News.

Amazon made a decision to pull the advertisements from the subway cars after several riders complained, according to Entertainment Weekly.

MTA had previously approved the ads, as they didn’t violate any of the Authority’s current guidelines, Ortiz explained.

The MTA earlier this year voted to ban “political” advertising from the city’s bus and subway system.

MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz told BuzzFeed News that the Amazon campaign meets the revised standards. In addition, Amazon has paid for 260 subway station posters to be displayed until December 6th.

“It’s very hard with a show with subject matter like this to market it tastefully, so I understand they’re walking a very hard line”, Spotnitz told EW. “I don’t think they’re offensive, it’s a TV show and it’s better than nothing, I think”.