An ad can be imagined as a living conversation between a brand and a community. A company's ad history illustrates how that conversation developed over time, the same way a person evolves in a series of grade-school pictures.
Most companies like to play it safe. The vast majority of ads we can think of feature familiar social landscapes, common worldviews, and models that appear to vary little from one brand to the next, even if the products may be completely different.
Not so with Benetton Group. From its inception Benetton sought to use advertising as more than a means to promote its clothing, but as a vehicle to tell stories about global issues much larger than outerwear. For as long as it's had the financial clout, the company's marketing strategy has been to exploit the brand to provoke self-reflection and discourse.
In early 2000 Benetton began a print campaign called "We, On Death Row." The spread featured photos of death row inmates from a Missouri prison. Along with the photos were corresponding articles about their childhoods, their dreams, their feelings about death, and their families.
A 2000 press release from the Benetton website explained, "Leaving aside any social, political, judicial or moral consideration, this project aims at showing to the public the reality of capital punishment." It didn't so much take a side as attempt to humanize people we've been taught to label villains without ever asking questions.
The campaign resulted in a global ban of Benetton ads, particularly in America, where journalists and pro-death row groups (usually an unlikely pairing) were livid. Families of inmates' victims issued press releases decrying Benetton's glamorization of murder.
Oliviero Toscani, the man responsible for "We, On Death Row," interviewed the inmates on his own over the course of two years. He expressed his feelings about the campaign in this way: "We will look back at this kind of justice one day and we will consider ourselves very primitive."
Toscani worked with Benetton for over 18 years. Known for his risqué oeuvres even before his employment there began, he took his own photographs, largely contributed his own copy, and was given complete creative control in the Benetton Marketing Department.
But in the inferno of lawsuits resulting from "We, On Death Row," company founder Luciano Benetton issued Toscani a pink slip on "good terms."
Toscani's hope was to galvanize the faces left unrepresented in the world of high fashion. His thoughts on advertising remain provocative and, for me, quite unique.
"Somebody who buys a top model and uses them as a symbol is making a social political choice," he explained. "It's actually more extreme and eccentric than mine. Hitler wanted Aryans. That's what they do with Claudia Schiffer, those fashion companies. That's what fashion magazines do.
"I call them the Fourth Reich publishers. You get all the rich and beautiful. All the alienated have to disappear. Style and culture magazines are like that, and so you are going to have a society that is intolerant."
Toscani's attempt to make society more aware of its human climate -- while building brand awareness for Benetton -- drew me into exploring the company's other campaigns. Most of these were causing a stir long before Toscani made his notions of death row a reality. In fact, one could argue that "We, On Death Row" was just the tip of a large and illustrious iceburg.
A 1988 a campaign called "United Superstars of Benetton" featured cultural icons arm-in-arm. The couples ranged from Adam and Eve, to unlikely duos like Leonardo da Vinci and Julius Caesar.
One of the most popular ads of the "United Superstars of Benetton" campaign features Joan of Arc and Marilyn Monroe with arms linked. Soldiers of the same struggle? Not a huge stretch, depending on who you talk to.
A campaign further down the line depicted race relations, another Benetton play on "unlikely" pairings. One example includes a print ad depicting three human hearts marked "white," "black" and "yellow."
Another race relations ad depicts a black and white horse having sex, and -- my personal favourite in this play on pairs -- a print of the upper body of an ebony woman breastfeeding a Caucasian baby. 
Another campaign concerned the topic of AIDS.
A few AIDS victims and their families reacted warmly; most were adamant. One poster that gets a healthy scream from both sides of the fence portrays AIDS sufferer Jeremy Sheets on his deathbed surrounded by people who appear to be grieving.
To the right is a set of test tubes, presumably filled with HIV positive blood. Another ad depicts close-up shots of body parts (genitalia, arms, legs) tattooed "HIV positive" like animals branded for slaughter.
According to Musée de la Pub, "[I]n this campaign, the words were [...] powerful: the general public's impression was that of bodies being marked off and excluded."
Public outcry since "We, On Death Row" has perhaps compelled Benetton to let up a little on the touchy subject matter. But the focus remains socially conscious and brow-raising.
The "Food for Life" campaign of 2003, risqué in Benetton's usual style, highlighted poverty. Benetton teamed up with the United Nations World Food service to take ad photos and do interviews in 81 countries overflowing with starving men, women and children. The campaign was comprised of posters telling the stories of people who made contact with the World Food program. Some creative* from that series:
Some journalists perceive "Food for Life" as the beginning of a redemptive path after all the heat Benetton got for "We, On Death Row." Indeed, 2004's "Save the Monkey!" campaign seems to follow the poignant but otherwise politically correct route purportedly begun by "Food for Life."
Below are some interesting creative which have also ignited sparks of inspiration or disdain from those who saw them. Even today, they ignite curiosity and debate.
This ad was hoisted onto a billboard right across the street from the Vatican. It was consequently banned in both Italy and France, followed by other countries where a crucial number of citizens are Catholic:
Note the downplayed significance of Benetton merchandise in a shot. The focus is placed upon the subjects and the sensations they convey.
A pair of families, different but similar:
If you're not swept off your feet by the rousing aesthetics, Benetton's own story is equally provocative.
Benetton Group was started by Luciano Benetton in Villa Minelli, Italy in 1963. In the minds of its founders it remains a "small family business," though it's hardly small by mom-and-pop standards. Benetton's trademark green banners cross the globe.
If you've developed an interest in Benetton's socially conscious art, check out the current issue of Benetton’s Colors, a quarterly, world-conscious online magazine. Colors, which focuses on uniting similarities and differences worldwide, delivers racy and curious content in an interactive, eye-pleasing environment.
Volume 62, an exploration of drugs, elaborates upon sex enhancers in one article. Before reading the piece, I had no idea sea horses are used for erectile dysfunction in the Philippines, or that such a thing as “stud spray” existed.
Benetton's use of ads as a tool to challenge deep-seated worldviews impacts the way ads throughout the world are viewed and judged. On storefronts and billboards they sit as prime examples of the power that can spring from a desire to change things.
Even in something as "corporate" as a firm's ad history, inspiration exists for those still seeking magic and meaning in a world gone pinstripe. E-mail Angela, return home or go back to all articles.