The Hitler teapot (also called the Hitler tea kettle; officially the Michael Graves Design Bells and Whistles Stainless Steel Tea Kettle) was a stainless-steel

kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...

sold in 2013 by the American retailer and department store chain

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

. It attracted attention on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

due to its perceived resemblance to the

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

dictator

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Background

The kettle was part of a collection of products designed by the American architect and designer

Michael Graves Michael Graves (July 9, 1934 – March 12, 2015) was an American architect, designer, and educator, as well as principal of Michael Graves and Associates and Michael Graves Design Group. He was a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Gr ...

for

. It first attracted attention in May 2013 when a photograph of a billboard advertising the product on Interstate 405 in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

, was posted online, and Internet users, especially of the social news aggregator

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

, noted the kettle's perceived resemblance to

, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. The kettle's design incorporated a black handle and lid top that many users interpreted to look like Hitler's parted hairstyle and

toothbrush moustache The toothbrush moustache is a style of moustache in which the sides are vertical (or nearly vertical) rather than tapered, giving the hairs the appearance of the bristles on a toothbrush that are attached to the nose. It was made famous by such ...

, as well as a spout that was thought to resemble a right arm raised in a

Nazi salute The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

. In a poll of KPCC listeners, roughly 31 percent thought it resembled the dictator, while roughly 25 percent thought it did not.

Response

Due to the media attention, JCPenney removed the billboard that sparked the initial heightened interest in the product, and said that any resemblance of the kettle to Hitler was unintentional, stating in a tweet: "If we'd designed the kettle to look like something, we would've gone

ith a The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

snowman". The Hitler teapot has been cited as an example of

pareidolia Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Common examples are perceived images of animals, ...

, a phenomenon in which individuals perceive meaningful images or patterns in otherwise random formations. Writing in ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

'', Gavriel Rosenfeld characterised the popularity of the Hitler teapot as being part of a wider phenomenon of "Hitlerization" and Hitler memes. Due to its notoriety, the kettle sold out at JCPenney's stores, with some later reappearing on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

, priced as high as $199, much higher than the original retail price of $40.

References

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teapot A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. It is one of the core components of teaware. Dry tea is available either in tea ba ...

JCPenney Internet memes introduced in 2013 Teapots Viral marketing

Background

Response

See also

References