Fast food freebie features swastika tattoo
When 8-year-old Eddie and his family recently ate at a fast food outlet in Umeå in northern Sweden, they were surprised to find that the gift inside the box featured a swastika tattoo.
“We couldn’t believe our eyes. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said Eddie’s mother Malin Hägglund to local paper Västerbottenskuriren.
Earlier this week the family had decided to have lunch at Swedish fast food chain Frasses in the Ersboda district of Umeå.
When Eddie opened his box to look for the regulation toy included in the meal he was happy to discover a sheet of temporary tattoos. It was when looking through these his parents were shocked to find a swastika among the tattoos.
“Eddie is a huge fan of tattoos, but we thought this was a very strange tattoo for a child and that it was wrong of the shop to buy in this product,” said Malin Hägglund to the paper.
According to news agency TT, the owners of Frasses have expressed regret over the incident and say that they believed the product had been imported from China and that the swastika had thus been included by mistake.
The swastika, an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, is most commonly associated as a symbol of the Nazi party in Germany and was adopted as the state flag of Germany in the 1930s. It is now outlawed in the country if used as a symbol for neo-Nazism.
In eastern culture however the symbol features in a number of Asian languages and the word originally came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object.
The Local’s attempts to reach the CEO and press spokesperson for Frasses have so far proved unsuccessful.
Comments
See Also
“We couldn’t believe our eyes. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said Eddie’s mother Malin Hägglund to local paper Västerbottenskuriren.
Earlier this week the family had decided to have lunch at Swedish fast food chain Frasses in the Ersboda district of Umeå.
When Eddie opened his box to look for the regulation toy included in the meal he was happy to discover a sheet of temporary tattoos. It was when looking through these his parents were shocked to find a swastika among the tattoos.
“Eddie is a huge fan of tattoos, but we thought this was a very strange tattoo for a child and that it was wrong of the shop to buy in this product,” said Malin Hägglund to the paper.
According to news agency TT, the owners of Frasses have expressed regret over the incident and say that they believed the product had been imported from China and that the swastika had thus been included by mistake.
The swastika, an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, is most commonly associated as a symbol of the Nazi party in Germany and was adopted as the state flag of Germany in the 1930s. It is now outlawed in the country if used as a symbol for neo-Nazism.
In eastern culture however the symbol features in a number of Asian languages and the word originally came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object.
The Local’s attempts to reach the CEO and press spokesperson for Frasses have so far proved unsuccessful.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.