There is almost no-one left that it is permissible to stereotype; now Germans are out, apparently.

A radio advertisement has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for implying Germans are tyrants.

Complaints were upheld about a Reed recruitment website commercial, which had an angry boss speaking in German.

The ASA said it could cause serious offence to some listeners and was found to be offensive because it used a negative stereotype.

The advert had sparked 13 complaints from the public, but Reed did not comment on them.

The ASA also said that while the use of stereotypes was “inevitable” to establish a character in a short radio advert, this should not “perpetuate damaging misconceptions”.

The watchdog said: “We noted the ad used a German speaker, rather than someone speaking English, to portray the boss as ‘a bit of a tyrant’ and the humour derived from a stereotype at the expense of German people.

This is a shame really, since up until now I have been killing Nazis in Wolfenstein 2 with a completely clear conscience – I’d hate to “perpetuate damaging misconceptions”, though. Really.