Benetton Campaigns

The Benetton Campaign.

The Benetton brand is a huge clothing empire. United Colours is their main clothing line, originating in Europe, Italy in particular. Four members of the Benetton family founded this empire back in 1965; Luciano, Guiliana, Gilberto and Carlo. Not only does the Benetton family own the United Colours, they control parts of Atlantia S.p.A (Italy's motorway system) Autogrill (a chain of roadside restaurants) and investments with Hotel Monaco and Grand Canal in Venice.

Obviously a very wealthy and accomplished family.

The Benetton Group includes United Colours, Sisley and Playlife. All active members which produce clothing items for the Benetton Group. All three partners have accumulated over a 3billion$ turnover.

David Sims, Benetton's featured photographer creates massively controversial advertisements. Many of these campaigns reflect on with race, politics and social issues. Sims' photographic advertisements are sometimes obvious, but others are also subtle and need to be looked for. Then again, some campaigns aren't controversial, but are still effective.

The play on black/white vs colour in the advertisement wasn't strong enough for their campaign, not only that but the man dying looks like Jesus. In this campaign, the dying man is clinging onto a Benetton United Colours jumper, an advertisement which needs a double take to pick up on the subtleties in the photograph.

This Photograph is playing on the social standards of lesbians adopting children.

Some photographs by David Sims which focus more on the fashion photography

Benetton has now impacted over 120 countries in the world, with various shop fronts to purchase clothing items. Luciano's campaign is to bring, all the colours of the world together, a strong concept, that is successfully original. Capturing the public's attention Luciano Benetton's idea of "communicating the company's values" has really worked world-wide.

Many countries have banned Benetton's images, from the media as they are considered offensive on many levels.

Oliviero Toscani; the head of the advertising department of Benetton, has advertised these images not only in magazines, but on billboards to really show the public something they are trying to avoid considering. Although Toscani's campaigns have been unconventional, he claims they have been profitable.

http://www.benettongroup.com/en/whoweare/overview.htm

http://www.gppac.net/documents/pbp/7/5_benett.htm

http://www.creativefluff.com/recent-posts/david-sims-unites-color-and-form/