You better not use the number 88 on anything. It's not politically correct as Procter & Gamble has learned. They were so stupid as to put a white soccer jersey with 88 on it on Ariel laundry detergent boxes. They wanted us to believe that they were just advertising how white Ariel gets your clothes, but we know better. When their duplicity was exposed, they apologized for it and removed the highly offensive number.
You don't know why 88 is offensive? Well, let me explain before you unwittingly use it and get yourself into trouble. There are is a neo-Nazi group in Germany that uses 88 as a code to get around the ban on Nazi slogans. "H" is the 8th letter in the alphabet, so 88 stands for HH. Still confused? The only thing I could think of that it stood for was Hubert Humphrey, but I am informed it stands for Heil, Hitler.
So we are no longer allowed to use 88. If you happen to live at 88 ABC Street, you better petition the post office for an address change. If your telephone number is 555-123-4588, you better ask for a new number. You won't celebrate your 88th birthday -- you'll skip from 87 to 89. And, boy, are you in trouble if your Social Security number is 345-88-6789!
By the way, if I had been the person in charge at Procter & Gamble, I'd have said, "Get a life!" and left my detergent boxes just like they were.
"P&G apologizes for neo-Nazi gaffe." The Dallas Morning News; May 10, 2014; p. 12A.
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