United Colours Of Benetton Essay Research Paper

United Colours Of Benetton Essay, Research Paper

UNITED COLOURS OF BENETTON TOSCANI S ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Over the years, advertising has become the single largest source of visual imagery in our society. No matter where we look, we see advertisements trying to sell us everything from food to cars. We often see images of beautiful people enticing us to spend our money on products we think we need, hoping that by purchasing the product we too will reap the benefits of owning it. Not long ago however, an Italian clothing designer named Luciano Benetton changed the face of advertising forever by employing Oliviero Toscani as chief of advertising at Benetton. Instead of showing Benetton s products in its advertisements, they have chosen to show images related to important world issues in an apparent attempt to raise awareness. In this essay, I shall discuss the social and cultural implications of Benetton s advertisements to discover why they have become so criticised and whether or not they are beneficial to society today.

It was in 1989 that Benetton became the first company to eliminate pictures of its products from its advertisements. In their place, Benetton uses powerful images of AIDS victims, racism, war and now even death row inmates. In the same year, the trademark United Colours of Benetton was officially adopted. The campaign trademark and philosophy is the result of the combined efforts of company president Luciano Benetton and photographer Oliviero Toscani.

Benetton and Toscani s personal ideas and perspectives on advertising have since become very similar with Benetton s corporate image. Toscani is in fact only interested in the world and people. Toscani, who has a long history in dealing with art, was given total control over Benetton s advertisements. His decision to completely remove the product from the advertisements stems directly from his beliefs about the problems of contemporary advertising. He believes that the advertising industry has corrupted society . However, despite claims from both men that profit was never a motive and raising social conscience is their single goal, Benetton advertisements have been widely criticised and banned world-wide. The following reports discuss three of Benetton s main advertisement campaigns: AIDS, race and death row.

It may be difficult for us to understand the lack of understanding of AIDS in the past but our society was not always as informed as today. When the Benetton AIDS campaign began in 1991, this was during the AIDS crisis when people were not as informed about the causes or transmission of the disease. At times in the past, people with AIDS were seen as outcasts. At one point, the government had even considered mass quarantine of AIDS infected patients. When discussing these advertisements, we must first realise what the situation was like when they were presented to the world.

One advertisement is a photo of a man named David Kirby who at the time was dying of AIDS. The image first ran as a photo in Life magazine where it received mass praise and critical acclaim. Kirby s family then gave Benetton permission to use the picture in their advertisements in hopes that it would raise attention of the AIDS epidemic. However, when Benetton published the advertisement, it was criticised as exploitation of the victim as a way to gain brand recognition and sell more clothes. Magazine publishers and Britain s Advertising Standards Authority have even called the advertisement obscene , disgusting and a despicable exploitation of a tragic situation . It would seem as though even when choosing a critically acclaimed photo, Benetton can do no good in the eyes of the media.

Another advertisement is a photo of virals of blood like those used in the AIDS testing process. Names of famous world leaders are shown on the virals to show that no one is immune to the AIDS virus. At that time, AIDS was widely thought to be transmitted only between gay men and drug users. Benetton attempted to make the problem seem more personal, hoping that if people realised that they too were susceptible to the AIDS virus, they might be more likely to help the problem.

Benetton s condom advertisements, unlike the other AIDS advertisements, provide a solution for the problem shown. Benetton knew tat condoms are an effective way to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus, which is commonly transmitted through sexual intercourse. These advertisements are an attempt to bring an idea to light that people will be more likely to use condoms. Before we judge Benetton for exploiting victims and showing images that we would prefer not to see, we must first realise that these advertisements were not only shown in the U.S.A and the UK. In other countries, AIDS was, and still is, a much worse problem. In third world countries especially, little is known about the AIDS disease. We cannot condemn Benetton for telling us something we already know, but instead embrace what they are saying in hopes that it will help other people.

No one can dispute that racism still exists throughout the entire world. Even today, well after the civil rights movement, cultural bias, hatred and discrimination are major problems and issues for debate. Benetton uses its advertisements in an attempt to raise our awareness of a problem that would generally not be discussed in advertising. The main theme that spreads thr