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Benetton's most controversial adverts



A Benetton clothing store window covered by posters as part of the launch of a publicity campaign with photo montages showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing Egypt's Ahmed el-Tayeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, and Barack Obama with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, 2011
Photograph: Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images





A newborn baby advert, 1991: Benetton says: 'The photo of the newborn baby girl, Giusy, was intended as an anthem to life, but was one of the most censured visuals in the history of Benetton ads. In the realm of advertising, traditionally occupied by pretense, the eruption of real life caused a scandal. In Italy, the protests started in Palermo, where the Town Council ordered Benetton to take down its advertising posters. In Milan, censorship was preventive and the vast ‘Piazza Duomo’ stayed off-limits. The ad was then condemned by the Code of Advertising Practice Court, the Self-Regulatory Committee for the sector, which decided that the photo “does not take account of public sensitivity”. It was awarded a prize by the Swiss ‘Société Générale d’Affichage’ (General Poster Association) and the Sant’Orsola General Hospital in Bologna asked for permission to display the photo in its delivery room'
Photograph: Rex Features




A guerilla with human bone, 1992: Bentton asks: 'Can marketing and the enormous power of advertising budgets be used to establish a dialogue with consumers that focuses on something other than a company’s products? Where was it written that advertising could only portray the absence of conflict and pain?'
Photograph: Nicholas Bailey/Rex Features




An HIV Positive advertising campaign in Paris, 1993: Benetton's Aids campaign also included a picture of David Kirby, an HIV Positive patient, as he lay dying in hospital. Kirby's parents said: 'We don’t feel we’ve been used by Benetton, but rather the reverse: David is speaking much louder now that he’s dead, than he did when he was alive''
Photograph: Bernard Annebicque/Sygma/Corbis




A Benetton anti-racism advert in Rome, 1996
Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Feature




A Food for Life advert, 2003: An arresting image of an amputee with a spoon attached to his limb. Benetton said: 'The aim was to show how food can be a catalyst for social change, a major engine for peace and development that can radically change an individual’s future prospects of life'
Photograph: PR




A Food for Work advert, 2003: Benetton says of the campaign: 'It highlighted the problem of hunger, which is still the greatest humanitarian emergency around the world even though it has, to all intents and purposes, been forgotten by the media and the general public'
Photograph: PR




A still from the James and other apes campaign, 2004: Benetton says: 'This campaign was made with the support of the Jane Goodall Institute, founded by the renowned primatologist who is a committed defender of the environment and a UN Messenger of Peace. Through this initiative, Benetton continued its exploration of diversity as a 'wealth' of our world, extending it from the variety of human races to embrace the living beings that are our closest cousins. The portraits of these great apes make us ponder the fundamental questions of mankind, reflected in the enigmatic gaze of races so close to us on the evolutionary ladder'
Photograph: PR




An advert from the Victims campaign, 2008: A Tibetan monk prays with a Chinese soldier. Benetton said at the time it was an attempt 'to make a small contribution to dialogue and engagement between Tibetan and Chinese people'
Photograph: PR

The Guardian

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