The Scottish National party is to lodge an official complaint with Germany’s advertising association about the use of the phrase Schotten Preise, meaning Scottish prices, to advertise discounted goods.

It believes the long-established marketing technique is offensive and promotes an unfair racial stereotype of Scots people as mean.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s group leader at Westminster, is to write to officials in Germany seeking an end to the use of the phrase, which has promoted products ranging from fast food to air fares. Robertson, the son of a German, said it was unacceptable to portray Scots in such a pejorative way, which he believes could harm the country’s reputation.

Many discount stores in Germany begin with the prefix “Mac”. Geizkragen, one of the country’s most popular price-comparison websites, depicts a Scot wearing a kilt and tartan hat chasing coins and advising Germans how to save money.

Travel agents regularly advertise “Scottish prices” for bargains and last year the ADAC, a German motoring club, sent an e-mail to 15 million customers featuring a kilt-wearing Scot, with the caption: “It doesn’t have to be this way.” Robertson said: “You wouldn’t do it with orthodox Jews, so why do it with Scots? The constant association of our country and people with meanness and cheapness is beginning to hit at the borders of defamation and insult.”

The origins of Schotten Preise in Germany may come from the 15th century when many Scots lived in German-populated areas of the Baltic and are believed to have offered goods at competitive prices.

David McAllister, leader of Germany’s governing Christian Democratic Union party, who is of Scottish descent, said it would take years before Germans dispense with the stereotype of Scots as skinflints. “Germans are generally careful not to employ national stereotypes,” he said. “But there seems to be one nation exempt from that, and that’s Scotland.”

Oliver Flaskämper, who founded Geizkragen, said the mean Scot on his website was intended to be endearing. “We have never had any complaints, even though we are near a British army base with a lot of Scottish soldiers,” he said.

Alex Johnstone, a Conservative MSP, accused the SNP of “a kind of political correctness we could well do without”, saying it should act “in a more light-hearted and engaged way”.

Last year, a Scottish cultural society in Hungary complained about a “Scottish menu” by Burger King, saying it portrayed Scots in a poor light.

In 2002, the then shadow transport minister Kenny MacAskill, now justice secretary, branded a Ford campaign as racist. The advert in Austria had bagpipe music playing when a mechanic opened a bonnet, with a voice saying: “Experience the saving potential of the new Ford engine.”

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