Benetton Advertisements

Benetton is a clothing company that in 1989 and the years that followed used shock advertising as a major part of their advertising department and budget. Shock advertising can be defined as anything that incites or arouses interest through provocative, unusual or other images that are out of the ordinary or considered taboo. As a company for nearly twenty years, Benetton established itself as edgy and daring through their controversial ad campaigns. They had numerous different campaigns that included images of multi-cultural “harmony”, “charitable” causes and pictures of death row inmates. All that would accompany these images would be a simple Benetton logo and nothing else.

In fact, nearly all the time Benetton products were not used in the images. So what were they advertising? Benetton executives and creative director Oliviero Toscani claimed they were raising awareness for the causes and trying to help those people who did not have a voice. This is all well and good, but then it does not seem right to put the Benetton logo on the image and use it as an advertisement. If Benetton was truly concerned with these causes and did not want to exploit the tragedies such as death row inmates or David Kirby and his family. What they should have done instead was set up a non-profit and using the money from the Benetton corporation produce ad campaigns that would raise awareness and not mention Benetton or their products at all.

It is also a rather confusing chain of campaigns because Benetton has nothing to do with the images and it is like comparing apples to oranges. There was one particular image of a priest and a nun kissing with the Benetton logo small and in the corner. What is this ad suggesting? That if you buy clothes from Benetton the strictness of the Catholic Church will disappear or that if you buy clothes from Benetton the morals of members of the clergy will disintegrate? Both scenarios seem incredibly unlikely and neither really benefit anyone.

By giving attention to these campaigns and even discussing them, we are giving them credence. Even if we point out their flaws or declare them inappropriate. These campaigns are still being talked about over twenty years later so clearly they achieved their purpose. The goal was to spread the word about Benetton and make them a more common name. If you truly dislike the ads or find them offensive, simply ignore the ads altogether, ignore Benetton and they will quickly fade away.