World leaders pucker up in new Benetton campaign
I love a bit of controversy.
The new Benetton “unhate” campaign reminds us all why we all loved (or hated) the brand so much when they first came out with their bold and brave graphic imagery depicting racial equality. This brazen move has reinstated Benetton as a rule breaker, a challenger brand and a strong voice in the sea of brand clutter we all get bombarded with daily. It is relevant. It is topical. It is now. It is so Benetton.
The airbrush is mightier than the sword.
I alike the visuals to a sharp sword piercing the ugly world of politics, hate, violence and war we see every day. They push the boundaries so far in the opposite direction to the point of ridiculous, that one can’t help but resonate on a deep soul level with the point they are making. Even if at first shocked and perhaps rendered indignant by such unexpected and unabashed images, the message will have hit home nonetheless. In a split second, the seed will have been planted in the viewer’s heart, to take roots and grow a new tree of tolerance.
We be loving’, they be hatin’
The Benetton Group wants the “unhate” campaign to make a solid contribution to a culture of tolerance. Alessandro Benetton says, “While global love is still a utopia, albeit a worthy one, the invitation ‘not to hate’, to combat the ‘culture of hatred’, is an ambitious but realistic objective… At this moment in history, so full of major upheavals and equally large hopes, we have decided, through this campaign, to give widespread visibility to an ideal notion of tolerance and invite the citizens of every country to reflect on how hatred arises particularly from fear of ‘the other’ and of what is unfamiliar to us…”
Of course, the haters will hate. They will cry out in anger. But the benefits of putting a message like this out there into a hurting world for all to see far outweigh the risk of outraging a few.
A look at a couple of Benetton’s older campaigns shows they have never been scared of saying it like it is, or rather how it should be.
I for one laud them for continuing to bring controversy and brave thinking into a world where the media is becoming more and more controlled by those in power, and we have all become immune to the injustices in this world. In fact we have developed a tolerance of all things abominable, and this campaign challenges us to embrace a different view.
Martinique Treadaway
Creative Director, Arctic Circle
@MartiniqueCT
I have always loved the Benetton campaigns - bold and 100% relevant. Wouldnt it be great if more brands showed this kind of bravery and used all that advertising spend to assist in shifting global mindsets?!
That would be incredible! Consumers are responding to that kind of thinking more and more, as everyone is fed up with the state of the world, so it certainly creates brand loyalty.
Someone once used the word buycott instead of boycott to describe how customers should direct the brands and not the other way around. In Britain enough customers stopped buying Nestle chocolate because it was not fair trade and as a result they have launched fair trade chocolate there( I believe it is has also arrived in SA now).
If we as the consumer help to steer these brands with our purchasing decisions we can be the proverbial change that Ghandi spoke about.
Then when these abominable acts do happen we are empowered already to help drive the change.
I would consider purchasing from Benetton just due to their campaign and with a society that is becoming more disenfranchised it is going to be the brands that take a stand like this which will succeed in my humble opinion.
Great article.