Shock Horror Tactics
Benetton have used shock tactics with previous advertising campaigns (see the Wiki link below). This week they got a very negative response for their new adverts, which (ironically) were meant to promote tolerance:
Benetton has been forced to pull an advertisement featuring a fake picture of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips.
The image showed the pontiff kissing Sheik Ahmed el Tayeb, an imam from Cairo’s al Azhar institute - a theological school of Sunni Islam.Al Azhar suspended interfaith talks with the Vatican earlier this year after Pope Benedict called for greater protections for Egypt’s minority Christians.
The picture was posted on the clothing company’s website and posters featuring the kiss were briefly displayed in Milan, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv and Rome.
It was among various fake pictures of political opponents kissing created for Benetton’s campaign, titled “Unhate”.
They included Barack Obama and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.
For more about this story, please see the links. The mock up posters and the film are both interesting topics for classroom discussion. We have a great Introduction to Advertising which we think you will definitely ‘unhate’ :)
Link: MediaEdu | Intro to Advertising
Link: Sky News | Article
Link: Guardian | Benetton Pope Kissing Ad Comment
Link: Wikipedia | Benetton | Shock Advertising
Link: Guardian | Benetton Pope Kissing Ads
Link: Benetton | Unhate
Link: Benetton | Unhate | Posters
Categories: Weeklies
Tags: adverting campaigns,advertising,angela merkel,banned adverts,barack obama,benetton,benetton pope benedict xv1 egyptian imam,benetton unhate,benetton unhate campaign,benjamin netanyahu,hugo chavez,introduction to advertising,mahmoud abbas,negative representations,nicolas sarkozy,shock tactics
