The ad, carried in national newspapers, first showed an army cap with a Nazi swastika. Referring to Hitler, it said: ``If all he wanted was to rule the world, he could have waited till 14th July 1999 (the day the course would be introduced).'' The final ad featured three babies, sitting in a row, one representing Julius Ceasar, the other Alexander the Great and the third, Hitler. Above them, the headline: ``Born to Rule.''

The ad for Advanced Technology Labs (ATL), created by McCann advertising, has since been withdrawn. ``These ads will not come back,'' says Girish Chandraker, Associate Vice-President, McCann, Chennai. The ad announced ATL's tie-up with US-based Middleware Engineering, which plans to impart blue chip software skills to IT professionals.

By using Hitler as a positive icon, the ad sparked off a debatein the fraternity. Says Shivjeet Kullar, National Creative Director, The Joint, ``This is an old technique which has been deliberately used to generate controversy. Certainly it's not in good taste''. While it is true that controversy (Remember the Tuff shoes and Calida underwear ads?) increases the visibility of an ad, the association of a negative icon with the company may not have augured well for ATL. Though the agency has been quick to have understood this, Chandraker defends the choice: ``Despite Hitler's ruthlessness, he is undoubtedly a military genius. In the ad, we were not referring to the context in which he gained notoriety.''

The client maintains that glorification of Hitler or even attention through negative publicity was not its intention. Says Ramesh Keshaban, Manager, Communication of ATL, Chennai: ``There was absolutely no attempt to make the ad sensational. It is just the aspirations of Hitler that we were trying to convey.''

Though the ads won't be seen anymore, they promise to bethe ad set's talking point for a while. Equus CEO Suhel Seth says there was no harm done, really. ``History cannot be obliterated,'' he says.

To which Hitesh Krishan of Clarion advertising says: ``Understandably some people's sensibilities would be offended. It would have been wiser on the part of the client to use a symbol that had positive connotations. If they want to convey the message they could have done it in a hundred other ways''. Yet others feel that the idea was workable, it simply wasn't smart advertising. ``I am comfortable with it,'' says Vikas Varma of FCB Ulka, ``but they should have explained the logic of using Hitler in the body copy.

People who missed out on the teaser ads got the context wrong when they saw the final copy.'' Understandably, McCann is wiser. ``In our future ads, the concept of `Born to Rule' will stay, but the image would be different,'' it now says, hastening to add the word ``positive''.