HAMBURG — Volkswagen has completed an internal report into how it came to publish a racist advert, the automaker said.
The findings will be released once its management board has reviewed the matter, VW said on Friday.
VW’s management board, headed by CEO Herbert Diess, meets regularly on Tuesdays.
In the clip, a black man is depicted next to a new VW Golf, being pushed around by an oversized white hand, which then flicks him into a building adorned with the sign “Petit Colon.”
Petit Colon is a real cafe in Buenos Aires, Argentina, located near the Teatro Colon. In French the term translates into “small settler,” which has colonial undertones.
Criticism of the advert went viral last month and the company apologized and pulled the clip, prompting VW’s labor leaders to accuse management of damaging the company.
“The clip is disgusting and inexcusable,” VW works council member Bernd Osterloh said at the time.
VW itself admitted that the ad was racist and insulting. It said that agencies usually produce its advertising campaigns and it was investigating where the mistake happened and would make its findings public.
