In 1965, Luciano
Benetton Benetton, Italy.
Originally produced
colorful sweaters, business expanded into a full range of clothing apparel
Developed into a two
billion dollar fashion empire
Benetton's advertising
campaign has been instrumental in its success in the fashion world.
The advertising
campaign is important for understanding how the philosophy of the company has
attempted to reinscribe its image within a broader set of political and
cultural concerns.
Benetton discontinued its images of upbeat consumerism that denied the
raw truth of the issues of the day.
an object lesson in how promotional culture increasingly uses pedagogical
practices
to shift its emphasis from selling a product to selling an image of
corporate responsibility.
Upbeat consumerism against …
Controversial and responsible….
In 1965, Luciano Benetton Benetton, Italy.
Originally produced colorful sweaters, business expanded into a full range of clothing apparel
Developed into a two billion dollar fashion empire
Benetton's advertising campaign has been instrumental in its success in the fashion world.
The advertising campaign is important for understanding how the philosophy of the company has attempted to reinscribe its image within a broader set of political and cultural concerns.
Benetton discontinued its images of upbeat consumerism that denied the raw truth of the issues of the day.
an object lesson in how promotional culture increasingly uses pedagogical practices
to shift its emphasis from selling a product to selling an image of corporate responsibility.
Upbeat consumerism against …
Controversial and responsible….
The same holds true for their current advertising campaign . This campaign uses 26 convicted killers (who together are responsible for 46 murders and awaiting execution. The campaign began in January 2000, and is titled “We, On Death Row.” It reveals the real faces of the prisoners in the advertisements. “Whether they are young or old, white or black, arrogant or anguished, fat or thin, remorseful or unrepentant, smiling or sad, healthy or ill, they are all guilty in the eyes of human law.”
The man behind the advertisements is Oliviero Toscani. Toscani worked for two years to do portraits of the death row inmates, in which he visited death rows in several American prisons. The advertisements are for print and billboards (execution), and constitute the dramatic visual images for Benetton’s new advertising campaign and their Spring-Summer 2000 worldwide communication campaign. The ads will appear on billboards in Europe, America, and Asia. The ads appeared in magazines such as Talk, Vanity Fair, and Tina Brown’s Magazine. The images are also available over the Internet on Benetton’s website (Benneton.com).
Benetton has targeted the age groups of 18 to 45 with these advertisements or anyone that may have an opinion about the death penalty. Benetton’s strategy for this campaign was to increase brand awareness and increase interest about this social issue. Benetton wants the focus of the campaign to be on the death penalty itself and not on the specific inmates. Benetton hopes that you will leave aside any social, political, judicial or moral considerations. They believe the focus of the ads is to show the public the reality of capital punishment, so that no one around the world will consider the death penalty neither as a distant problem nor as just news. Toscani hopes that these images will give back a human face to the prisoners on death row, and remind everyone that thinks that they are so sure they are right, that the debate concerns men and women in flesh and blood.
While Benetton is use to controversy and discussion of its ads in the press and among the public, their new campaign is receiving even more controversy. They are being attacked by the families of the victims, victims’ advocacy groups, Sears, and the state of Missouri . These groups are not only upset about the actual advertisements, but also a 100-page supplement that was released . In the 100-page supplement (that Benetton released and packaged in February with international Talk magazine) there is no mention of any of the crimes that the death row inmates committed. One journalist calls the interviews fan-magazine puff pieces. The interviews consist of a variety of other questions such as, “Did you ever want to travel,” and “Who are your favorite boxers?” Benetton also released that they paid seven inmates $1,000 dollars each for appearing in the ads. Benetton said that European law forced the company to compensate anyone pictured in an advertisement.
The families of the victims and many victim advocacy groups are outraged and accusing Benetton of “taking convicted killers and romanticizing them while ignoring the suffering of the victims and their survivors”, and “using the killers to sell sweaters at their expense.” The groups and the families of the victims have a great deal to say about the travesty Benetton has committed in their eyes . They are also calling for a boycott on all Benetton products.
Sears, Roebuck & Company ended a contract with Benetton in February. It was due to threats for a boycott, threats of a grant withdraw for 13 million, and the outrage of Sears chairman Arthur C. Martinez. Martinez has decided to ban the new Benetton USA clothing line. The contract signed in 1998 was for multiple-years, and carried Benetton products in their 400 stores. The reason the contract was signed was because Benetton was not doing well in America. Sears also said that the advertising campaign was inconsistent with what Sears has come to represent and is inconsistent with the customer base they serve. The loss of Sears contract to Benetton is estimated at around 100 million dollars . Since then Benetton has offered Sears the power to review and approve any future adds, but Sears still declined the renewal of the contract.
Missouri filed a lawsuit against Benetton February 9th. They are suing Benetton for one count of fraudulent misrepresentation, one count of trespass by deceit and one count of trespass by exceeding the scope of consent. Benetton did all this by cutting through the red tape in order to photograph and interview the inmates (four of which are in Missouri). Benetton lied to officials and said they were from Newsweek, and that they were sponsored by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Benetton kept the details about the campaign project hidden.
There are also a number of Benetton hate sites that give you the real low down on what these death-row inmates did. One such site goes through ten pages describing the horrific crimes the inmates have committed. They do not pull any punches when it comes to giving you the facts and not fluff (unlike Benetton). Due to all the negative backlash of their death row campaign it is obvious that it was not effective in achieving their goals. (Michael Grissett & Guillaume Sarthou, 2000)
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