Over the years, advertising has become the single largest source of visual imagery in our society. No matter where we look, we see advertisements trying to sell us everything from food to cars. We often see images of beautiful people enticing us to spend our money on products we think we need, hoping that by purchasing the product we too will reap the benefits of owning it. Not long ago however, an Italian clothing designer named Luciano Benetton changed the face of advertising forever by employing Oliviero Toscani as chief of advertising at Benetton. Instead of showing Benetton's products in its advertisements, they have chosen to show images related to important world issues in an apparent attempt to raise awareness. In this essay, I shall discuss the social and cultural implications of Benetton's advertisements to discover why they have become so criticised and whether or not they are beneficial to society today.

It was in 1989 that Benetton became the first company to eliminate pictures of its products from its advertisements. In their place, Benetton uses powerful images of AIDS victims, racism, war and now even death row inmates. In the same year, th

It may be difficult for us to understand the lack of understanding of AIDS in the past but our society was not always as informed as today. When the Benetton AIDS campaign began in 1991, this was during the AIDS crisis when people were not as informed about the causes or transmission of the disease. At times in the past, people with AIDS were seen as outcasts. At one point, the government had even considered mass quarantine of AIDS infected patients. When discussing these advertisements, we must first realise what the situation was like when they were presented to the world.

Even in my short life, I have become accustomed to seeing graphic images from many different sources: movies, television, the internet and even newspapers. We seem to pride ourselves in our freedom to express ourselves however we want. We also take pride in our level of tolerance of all cultures and our awareness of world issues. This is why I am very surprised at the number of bans and criticisms Benetton have faced over its advertisement campaigns in the U.S.A. It seems strange to me that in this day and age, that Benetton's advertisements could cause such a stir.

The only problem with this solution is the lack of actual help that it can do. Nowhere in any of Benetton's advertisements are there phone numbers to call or organisations to contact about how to actually help fight the problem addressed. For example, in the death row campaign we simply see the face of the man to be put to death with no information of the crime, trial, or possible innocence of the accused. In addition to the problem of the lack of information, one must ask the question of whether or not the issues Benetton shows are even worth showing. The only really controversial issue that they have ever tackled is that of the death penalty and here they have conveniently left out an opinion. It would seem as if Benetton chooses not to take a strong stance on controversial issues in order not to alienate any potential customers.

Benetton and Toscani's personal ideas and perspectives on advertising have since become very similar with Benetton's corporate image. Toscani is in fact "only interested in the world and people." Toscani, who has a long history in dealing with art, was given total control over Benetton's advertisements. His decision to completely remove the product from the advertisements stems directly from his beliefs about the problems of contemporary advertising. He believes that "the advertising industry has corrupted society". However, despite claims from both men that profit was never a motive and raising social conscience is their single goal, Benetton advertisements have been widely criticised and banned world-wide. The following reports discuss three of Benetton's main advertisement campaigns: AIDS, race and death row.

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Approximate Word count = 2158
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)