The purpose of advertising is not to sell more. It’s to do with institutional publicity, whose aim is to communicate the company's values (...) We need to convey a single strong image, which can be shared anywhere in the world.

Luciano Benetton, Founder and Chairman [1]

When Life magazine makes a cover about war, it makes the cover to inform, but also to sell the magazine and to sell the advertising pages inside the magazine -- Chivas Regal and all the others. So Time magazine and all the others make a cover to inform and to sell. To do what I do, I do that to sell but also to inform. And as soon as you inform, people point a finger at you and say, "You are exploiting!" No. It's the people who don't even inform [who are exploiting]. I don't care about the rejection; I'm not afraid to be rejected. Actally, it's a big honor in this world

Oliviero Toscani, Benetton Creative Director and Photographer (1982 – 2000) [2]

Benetton, the Italian retailer was engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of clothing, undergarments, shoes, cosmetics and accessories. Benetton also licensed its brand name to various manufacturers of sunglasses, stationery, cosmetics, linens, watches, toys, steering wheels, golf equipment, designer condoms and luggage. The group’s important brands included United Colors of Benetton (UCB), Sisley, PlayLife and Killer Loop. During fiscal 2002, Benetton reported revenues of €1.99 billion and net income of €128 million. Benetton spent €102 million on advertising and promotion during the year (see Exhibit I for revenue split-up and Exhibit II for financial highlights). In addition to retail outlets around the world, Benetton also operated megastores (3000 square foot stores) in such cities as Paris, Rome, Kobe, Osaka, New York, London, Moscow and Lisbon. As of 2002, the company operated in about 120 countries through its 5000 retail stores and employed about 7250 people.[3]

It is a fact that Benetton’s advertisement campaigns are known by many people around the world. But the main issue that i want to dwell upon in my article is that the campaign is not approved by ‘all the world’. Turkey is one of the countries that unapproved the campaign. Actually i have to correct this sentence with saying that in Turkey we are not used to see this kind of images outside of any store but we saw this images by using today’s communication tools and that takes us to small discussion groups that can never become spreaded around the whole country. And another fact in here is that this campaign didn’t made for the third world countries. Or at least it doesn’t seem to be like that. However much the photographer Oliviero Toscani wanted to spoke to the world without regarding any difference with his works of art, the situation seems to be in the hands of the company. Certainly the company wants to keep it’s high profits in countries like Turkey and in our case it seems that they already discovered Turkish peoples easily becoming angry issue that they don’t have any intensions to set the country at loggerheads. So this kind of campaigns became to be discussed only at academic grounds with criticisms and efforts to make the subject more meaningful with some questions like ‘Is this a work of art or an advertisement?, If it is what’s it’s goal?’. And of course my selection of this subject is another example.

In the Communication History class that i had seen in my undergraduate education, our discussion topics about the photographs were mostly about their ability to represent themselfs including art, fashion and advertisement that non answers the question that what is their purpose? But the main question here should be ‘what is Toscani’s aim?’. There’s hundreds of photographs like the ones that i chose and everyone of them attracts attention to a problem of the world but the main question is, do they really have an aim to put things right or at least attract attention to some problems or, are there some companies behind all of this which are only considering about their own profits.

Toscani is speaking for his own advertisement point of view:

I’m not advertising. I’m not selling. I’m not trying to decieve people to buy something. I wont praise Benetton’s jerseys considering their loops or colors because just like the people i have no doubt of their quality.(!!!) I’m not a stealthy provoker, i’m just looking for new ways of expression. Like all artists i’m discussing with the society. I’m not exploiting the ruins of the world just to mention about Benetton to the people, i’m targeting certain, stereotyped beliefs and formalism. I’m making use of the impression and presentation power of a despised media, art and advertisement. I’m scratching the itchy place of the public opinion. Like a writer, a grinder and a journalist i’m joining the discussion. The sad image of the young Bosnian soldier seems stronger than all advertisement suspicions and Benetton’s little green rectangle to me. It says what it has to say. Why can’t it be understood on a Benetton signed board? Doesn’t newspapers or all media organizations have a cap or symbol? They are sold as well. They are making advertisements as well. [4]

Toscani seems to be solved the problem with this discourse. But for a campaign or not, using the images of humanity like this, causes minorities to become representaion objects. But the main representation object should be people themselfs outside of the minority discourse. Toscani seems to be taking these photos just by breaking this discourse apart and turning a blind eye on it. He is presenting all the world’s minorities in a frame.

Another point that had to be critiqued lies beyond the denial that these photographs were shotted to be powerful and noticable. This works of Toscani can not be ‘solid’ if we consider Radhakrishnan’s words. There is a split on these photographs. And to my opinion this split is a result of the uncomplete meaning between intention and application. The photographs are gone way beyond the intentions of a advertisement campaign. The point that had to be dwelled upon here is to be able to look behind the cult meanings of the photographs. Behind this meaning there’s a mind that wants to draw attention more than concernes to attract attention to the world’s problems. There is many news about this campaign but none of them contains the question ‘what is Toscani trying to say with his photographs?’ more than his photographic perspective. The news usually ends with tese words: “...and the famous photographer took up starving people of Africa as cover topic this time...” In all the details of the news only this much mentioned about the starving people.

In today’s global environment, the consumer is constantly faced with a barrage of visual images that claim to satisfy his or her needs, wants, and desires. It has been suggested that visual communication is based on a universal understanding, given that most consumers can comprehend pictorial messages.[5] This would seem to explain why there has been a shift to global positioning strategies and the creation of global brands such as Benetton that rely almost exclusively on visual images instead of copy in their advertising.[6]

I think this general belief is quite naive. To do something different means, not to do something similar. However in our case Benetton is trying to make ‘the difference’ itself as it’s campaign subject. In other words Benetton is making a difference by only using ‘the difference’.

Another reason for Toscani attracted great attention with this campaign is because of using one of the new age’s reproductive art products: Photography. The words that W. Benjamin said about the production of art are making a stress to this subject:

…technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would ve out of reach for the original itself.[7]

Actually for Toscani it is not the photograph that reproduced here but the person in the photo itself. As Benjamin said: Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction[8]

The material that is being the subject of the photograph (human, animal, object etc.) is a “thing” that can not reproduce itself. Toscani started a reprodution process when he took these ‘things’ as his subject. And while doing that he perceived and described the reproduced object by his own mind. However many of the otorities described this process as the artists own comment i would rather explain this with ‘the antenna’ metaphor. The photographer’s configuration is just like an antenna, it only takes and spreads the signals for it’s own wavelength. It is purified from all other discourses. But as we mentioned before the discourse has problems with being solid. And some people are continuously making an illegal broadcast by using the photographer and the photographs.

Besides the antenna metaphor brings an explanation to the perception issue too. In our day, perception has a structure that can be opened, shutted down or become a strainer on demand. For this reason those critiques will not accepted by everyone. Because the society itself always has many minor and major antennas.

Our different perceptions and our meaning worlds that never became identical in history, makes us to look at these photographs from many different places, even the ones that created for Benetton that have an intetion of speaking with us by our humanist feelings. The human perception carries an antenna’s features with it’s settings and wavelength that changes continuously. It usually have to take part in the trajectories that it can’t choose by it’s own.

In photography, exhibition value begins to displace cult value all along the line. But cult value does not give way without resistance. It retires into an ultimate retrenchment: the human countenance.[9]

Benetton olso did the same thing; they created themselfs a strategy that will continue it’s resistance for many years:

But Luciano and Toscani soon realized that Benetton advertisements had to stand apart from the rest of the competition. They decided to promote Benetton as a life style brand.[10]

This ideal perspective and the antenna metaphor are similar. The motive to make something different, the broadcast made from a different wavelenght and the confusion arised from these proofs the success of Benetton? However the one thing that Toscani didn’t considered is the contraband broadcasts made over his own discourses. There’s many sources that are trying to turn everything to their own wavelenghts by using his point of view and making their racism discourses stronger. This photographs are a new type of racist maps which were given to the humanitys hands by Toscani. These are reorganized toys to fit the modern art perspective. This work of Toscani will vanish in history as a lost advertisement campaign. This campaign will never bring it’s original thought together with the crowds. And the only reason for that is, it was not supported except a campaign which have imperialist goals. Benjamin’s sentence describes this in the best way:

Imperialistic war is a rebellion of technology which collects, in the form of “human material”, the claims to which society has denied its natural material.[11]

Footnotes:

[1] www.benetton.com

[2] Debra Ollivier, “The colorful dissenter of Benetton,” www.salon.com, 17th April 2000 in Benetton Group:Evolution of Communication Strategy

[3] Benetton Group:Evolution of Communication Strategy p.2

[4] From Oliviero Toscani’s press-conferance at Turkey; August-2006.

[5] Bougery, Marc, and George Guimaraes. "Global Ads: Say it with Pictures," The Journal of European Business, 4 (5), 1993. May/June, 22-26. in "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising" Kernan, J. K., and T. J. Domzal. "International Advertising: To Globalize, Visualize," Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 1993, 5 (4), 51-71. in "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising"

[6] Evans, Ian G. and Sumandeep Riyait. "Is the Message Being Received? Benetton Analysed," International Journal of Advertising, 1993, 12, 291-301. in "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising"

[7] Walter Benjamin; “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” p.20

[8] Walter Benjamin; “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” p.22

[9] Walter Benjamin; “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” p.24

[10] Benetton Group:Evolution of Communication Strategy p.4

[11] Walter Benjamin; The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction p.34

Bibliography

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Bougery, Marc, and George Guimaraes, "Global Ads: Say it with Pictures," The Journal of European Business, 4 (5), 1993. May/June, 22-26. in "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising" Kernan, J. K., and T. J. Domzal. "International Advertising: To Globalize, Visualize," Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 1993, 5 (4), 51-71. in "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising"

Evans, Ian G. and Sumandeep Riyait. "Is the Message Being Received? Benetton Analysed," International Journal of Advertising, 1993, 12, 291-301. in "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising"

Michael A. Callow, Leon G. Schiffman "A Visual Esperanto? The Pictorial Metaphor in Global Advertising", in European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 4, Bernard Dubois and Tina M. Lowrey and L. J. Shrum, Marc Vanhuele (eds.), Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, 1999, pp. 17-20.

Radhakrishnan, R. “Minority Theory, Re-Visited,” The New Centennial Review 6:2 (Fall 2006) pp. 39-55.