THE Northern Ireland Office may be forced to shelve plans to screen television advertisements comparing events in Nazi Germany with sectarianism in the North.
The proposals have met with wide criticism from business and political leaders. They have described the idea as irresponsible and claimed that such an advertisement would greatly damage trade and tourism.
A leading Belfast advertising agency is understood to have already begun work on the controversial campaign. It is believed that pre war footage of Nazi Germany would be inter cut with recent images of burnt out churches and schools and posters urging boycotts of Catholic and Protestant businesses in the North.
The NIO wants to shock people into confronting the issues in an attempt to halt the slide back to full scale violence.
However, the president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce, Mr Colin Anderson, said he hoped the NIO would take note of the widespread criticism of the idea and reassess its plans.
Comparing the North with Nazi Germany was "extreme and sensationalist", he said. "It could have a potentially devastating effect on business, tourism and inward investment. I would have extreme difficulty with this advertising campaign. It seems out of the question.
"In Nazi Germany, it was the government which persecuted the Jews. I don't see government troops here lining people up for the concentration camps."
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board refused to comment on the proposed advertisement.
Mr Alex Attwood of the SDLP said if the advertisement went ahead as planned, it would fundamentally misrepresent the people and character of the North.
The chairman of the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland, Mr Bill Tosh, said the NIO had made a serious error of judgment.
"They are using a sledgehammer to relay to people the horrors of punishment beatings and shootings. It almost has an indecent ring to it", he added.
Mr Bill Jeffrey, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses in the North, said anyone involved in the project was "living in cloud cuckoo land".
The NIO is believed to be deeply embarrassed by the widespread criticism. Sources said that although an announcement might not be made, there was no way that the proposed advertisement would go ahead.
However, an NIO spokesman last night said that the intention had not been to compare the North directly with Nazi Germany but only to "draw illustrative parallels between behaviour there and then and behaviour here and now".
He added that the advertisement was still in the ideas stage and that no decision had been made to proceed with it.