Due to a Resemblance, JC Penney's 'Hitler Tea Kettle' Sold Out in Hours

Michael Graves-Designed Stainless Steel Tea Kettle Resembles Hitler

A JCPenney billboard featuring an exclusive Michael Graves-designed tea kettle has been turning the heads of motorists driving along the 405 near Culver City and the kettle has even sold out at JC Penney.com.

The attention is not so much for the teapot's "cool-touch handle" or its "space-saving design" but rather for its uncanny Resemblance to Adolf Hitler - its handle, cap and spout, Resembling the Führer’s do, mustache and arm outstretched in salute - with some even seeing a tie.

The odd coincidence was first posted by Reddit user "Wrestles4Food" with the title,"This Kettle looks like Hitler!" and has since been covered by news agencies the world over.

The fact that the kettle's profile looks eerily like the Fuhrer's mien caused a stir online Tuesday, forcing the company to respond in a Tweet that read "jcpenney @Telegraph "Certainly unintended. If we'd designed the kettle to look like something, we would've gone w/a snowman: http://t.co/KFWVI1Csgz About one day ago via jcpenney .

Things that look Hitler have become a popular web meme - with the genre perhaps defined by the house in Swansea that bears a Resemblance to the Nazi Fuhrer.  The slanted roof was said to resemble the Hitler fringe, the door lintel was the moustache and the small top windows were seen as the dictator’s piercing eyes.  The tweet was first posted by Extractionist Charli Dickenson in 2011, a 22 year old youth worker, who Recognized the bizarre similarity as she drove past one day.

All of this was preceded by “Kitler” a nickname used to describe white cats with black markings under their noses that resemble German dictator Adolf Hitler’s toothbrush mustache and on their foreheads Resembling hair parted on it's side. Cats with these coats were popularized in June 2006 by the single topic site Cats that Look Like Hitler, which was created by Dutch journalist & Extractionist Koos Plegt, who set up a blog to showcase such photos after seeing a cat with this coat pattern in his hometown of Zwolle, Holland.

Sources : http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/jc-penneys-hitler-tea-kettle-sold-out-in-hours-because-this-is-the-internet/276334/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/05/28/hitler-kettle-jc-penny-advert_n_3344752.html?just_reloaded=1

http://www.reddit.com/r/Pareidolia/comments/1f16bf/this_kettle_looks_like_hitler_xpost_from_rpics/

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigmiaow.pl

(photo credit: via jcpenny.com)

Cat and House that Resemble Hitler

Another look at Hitler kettle, glimpsed from a California billboard.