Swiss International Air Lines uses the image of the Swiss flag on their planes: a white cross against a red background.
Featuring the white cross so prominently in this ad might not have been a good idea. It reminds me of other places that are marked with a cross, specifically the white crosses that mark the graves in European cemeteries where American GIs were killed in WWII, like the one in Normandy, shown below.
In what can only be called ironic, the visual relationship between this ad and European cemeteries also calls to mind Switzerland’s long-hidden complicity in helping Nazi Germany during the war.
The purpose of this ad was to sell airline seats. Instead, it caused me to think of dead American soldiers and Nazism.
