GLOBAL CEO n November 2002 Case Study n

Benetton group:
Unconventional advertising
Senthil Ganesan*

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 Chairman
I am not here to sell pullovers, but to promote an image... Benetton’s advertising draws public
attention to universal themes like racial integration, the protection of the environment, Aids...
– Oliviero Toscani, Benetton Art Director and Photographer

Benetton Group: Unconventional Advertising
The group’s principal brands included United Colors
of Benetton (UCB), Sisley, PlayLife, Nordica, Prince,
Rollerblade, and Killer Loop.
The Benetton family (comprised of three brothers
and a sister) established the Benetton chain in a small
Italian town in 1955. To support his family, Luciano
Benetton (born 1935), dropped out of school to sell
apparel. His sister Guiliana (born 1937) worked as a
knitter in a local factory. Recognizing the potential
for a new business, Luciano and Guiliana decided to
start their own apparel company. They started off
small by selling sweaters and as the business grew,
the remaining two brothers joined in the activities of
the company. Each of the four siblings took
responsibility for one aspect of the business—Luciano

B
enetton Group is engaged in the
manufacturing and distribution of clothing,
undergarments, shoes, cosmetics and
accessories. Benetton also licensed its brand name
for a number of products like sunglasses, stationery,
cosmetics, linens, watches, toys, steering wheels and
knobs for automobile gearshifts, golf equipments,
designer condoms, luggage and designer pagers, etc.
concentrated on marketing; Guiliana directed the
design department; Gilberto (born 1941) handled
administration and finance; and Carlo (born 1943)
managed production. As business picked up, the
company entered into an agreement to open a store
for the exclusive marketing of apparel. The first store
was opened in 1969 and was an immediate success.

* Senthil Ganesan is a Faculty at ICFAI Knowledge Center, an affiliate of ICFAI. His areas of interest include Company Analysis and
Industry Analysis.

© ICFAI PRESS. All Rights Reserved.

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Case Study n GLOBAL CEO n November 2002

The same year, it went overseas by opening a similar The company opted for a communication strategy
store in Paris. Unlike most small producers, who opted in which issues and not clothes, play the lead part.
for the widest possible distribution, they decided to The company has decided to devote some of its
create a network of exclusive distributors, and used advertising budget to communicate on themes
sub-contractors. The chain soon expanded across relevant to young and old people worldwide.”
the world and established strong brand equity. The
Until the 1980s, Benetton advertisements were of
company is listed in Milan, London, Frankfurt, New
the traditional form and largely focused on its products
York, Toronto and Tokyo stock exchanges. As of 2001, and logo (stylized knot of yarn with word Benetton
the company operated in about 120 countries through
printed under it, contained within a dark green
more than 7,000 retail stores.
rectangle). In 1982, Luciano Benetton hired Oliviero
Benetton is one of the strongest brands in the world Toscani, a prominent fashion and advertisements
and adding to its popularity is the company’s photographer to head the advertising department of
advertising strategy. The the company. Toscani’s initial
biggest accolade that the advertisements were
company received was for its conventional in style showing
practice to separate its products Unlike most advertisements groups of young people
from advertisements. Benetton which centered around a wearing Benetton clothing.
is well-known across the world company’s product or image, Luciano and Toscani soon
for its unusual advertising realized that Benetton
techniques and themes, most Benetton’s advertising advertisements had to stand
of them bordering on campaigns addressed social apart from the rest of the
controversy and debate. and political issues competition and also from the
Benetton utilized “shock value” standard practices of the
and the reality of photographs advertising industry. They
to grab viewer’s attention and decided to promote Benetton
to make their brand name memorable. Unlike most as a “life style accessory” and not as a clothing brand.
advertisements which centered around a company’s Toscani’s first theme featured teenagers and kids
product or image, Benetton’s advertising campaigns
from culturally diverse nations. Colorfully dressed in
addressed social and political issues like racial
Benetton attire, the kids engaged in a variety of playful
integration, AIDS awareness, war, poverty, child acts. By linking the varying colors in the Benetton
labor, death, pollution etc. The company tried more
collection to the diverse “colors” of its world
to “communicate” to the world about these issues
customers, Toscani portrayed a picture of racial
rather than to “sell” apparel and accessories. harmony and world peace. It was from these
The way of the advertisements advertisements that the world famous inspirational
trademark “United Colors of Benetton” emerged.
Benetton has earned worldwide recognition by
creating advertisement themes that promote diversity In 1984, the company launched a similar campaign
and various other social causes. The company strives
to promote itself as a socially responsible business,
by supporting social organizations and discussing
moral issues in its print campaigns throughout the
world. Various company literature highlight Benetton’s
advertisement strategy:
“Benetton believes that it is important for
companies to take a stance in the real world
instead of using their advertising budget to
perpetuate the myth that they can make consumers
happy through the mere purchase of their product.

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GLOBAL CEO n November 2002 Case Study n

titled “All the colors in the World,” showing groups
of teenagers and kids from different countries and
ethnic groups dressed in Benetton clothing, with the
company logo in the corner. Bruno Suter, Director of
Eldorado Agency that handled Benetton’s advertising
account, commented on this multi-race theme:
Similar campaigns were also done with animals—a
wolf and a lamb with the tagline: “United Friends of
Benetton.”
Since Benetton’s clothing was sold in so many
different markets, each one preferring different styles,

“Nothing more is more like a fashion photograph

than another fashion photograph. You show some
lovely looking models and that’s it. With Benetton,
we started out with the notion of color. By
definition, Benetton means colors. So, to convey
this idea of colors, we showed a group, made up
of people with different colored skin. It was
fantastic, so exhilarating to show the products in
such a new and simple way.”
In 1985, advertisements included two black boys
kissing each other, with little US and USSR flags in
their hair and painted on their cheeks with the tagline Toscani decided that the company turn to
“United Colors of Benetton.” In 1986, the two little advertisements featuring not products but photos that
black boys appeared again, united by a globe and a stimulated thinking. His new advertisements neither
chain with the peace symbol. The globe became a
symbol of unification, and appeared on all the posters
that year. Similar themed advertisements were
launched for other countries in political battles with
each other: England and Argentina, Israel and
Germany, Iran and Iraq, Israelis and Arabs, etc. The
message read: “All colors are equal, just as all men
are equal.” Through such advertisements, Benetton
aimed to create a feeling of world peace and harmony.

In 1988, the company started mixing culture and
legends. New advertisements featured Adam and
Eve, Joan of Arc and Marilyn Monroe, Leonardo de
Vinci and Julius Caesar, all captioned with the slogan:
“United Superstars of Benetton.”
showed the products nor the logo. The knot logo was
replaced with a small green triangle with the tagline
“United Colors of Benetton.” Luciano Benetton
explained his decision to separate the products from
the advertisements:
“Using these images in this unconventional way
is an effort by Benetton to break through the
complacency that exists in our society due to the
constant flow of even the most horrendous realities
communicated through conventional media such
as the evening news or the morning paper. By
removing these images from their familiar contexts
and putting them in a new context they are more
likely to be noticed and given the attention they
deserve as the viewer becomes involved in the

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Case Study n
process of answering the questions: What does
this image mean? Why does this image appear
with a Benetton logo? How do I feel about the
subject of the image? What can I do?”
Famous advertisements during the late 1980s included
a black hand and a white hand linked by a handcuff,
a black woman breast-feeding a white baby. The
black woman-white baby advertisement received
severe criticism because many thought that Benetton
was reminding the black people of the US and UK of
the times of slavery when black women
breast-fed white babies. However, Benetton
maintained that such photos were only symbols of
brotherhood in the world and not exploitation of a
particular race. Other advertisements signifying
brotherhood and camaraderie included a white wolf
and a black sheep nose to nose, a black child sleeping
among a pile of white teddy-bears, a little black hand
on a big white hand, a piano duo showing little white
hands being helped by big black hands, two children
(one black, the other white) facing each other sitting
on their potties, tubes of personality tests, several
young couples of miners and bakers united by the
black of the soot or coal and the white of the flour.
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GLOBAL CEO n November 2002
An angelic-looking white child embracing a black
one whose hair shaped into devil’s horns created a
lot of conaternation among Black groups in the US.
In 1991, Toscani introduced a number of
advertisements that discussed other social issues.
The advertisements were a means to draw attention
to important social problems and thereby generate
public discussion. Throughout the early 1990s,
Benetton advertisements featured a cemetery
(signifying war deaths), many different brightly
colored condoms, a baby with an umbilical cord, a
priest and a nun kissing, etc. The advertisement
featuring the priest and nun seriously offended the
Pope of Vatican and the religious sentiments of
many. The image of the baby with an umbilical cord
invited mixed responses. In the company’s view,
advertisement simply conveyed the beauty of new
life. More specifically the advertisement was to
convey the universal idea of love as a force from
which life itself is born and that a baby symbolizes
the most permanent form of love. The photo set off
a huge controversy throughout Europe and many
wanted it to be banned. At the same time, however,
the image was exhibited in a Flemish museum as
part of a show celebrating the images of
motherhood.
In 1992, Toscani combined advertisements with politics
to further promote the Benetton image. He selected a
series of photojournalistic images concerning the AIDS
crisis, environmental disaster, political violence, war
exile, etc. These appeared in various journals and
magazines as well as on billboards without written text
except for the conspicuous insertion of the green and
white Benetton logo located in the margins. Toscani
explained the company’s decision to shift towards
photojournalistic images.
GLOBAL CEO n November 2002
“Unlike traditional adverts, our images usually
have no copy and no product, only our logo. They
do not show you a fictitious reality in which you
will be irresistible if you make use of our products.
They do not tell anyone to buy our clothes, they
do not even imply it. All they attempt to do is
promote a discussion about issues which people
would normally glide over if they approached them
from other channels, issues we feel should be
more widely discussed.”
Though most of its advertisements were severely
rebuked by governments, media and general public
alike, Toscani went one step further by embracing
“reality advertising.” Advertisements included: A
dying AIDS victim with his family at his bedside, an
African guerrilla holding a Kalachnikov and a human
leg bone, a boat overcrowded with Albanians, a group
of African refugees, a car in flames after a Mafia
bombing, a family weeping before the bloodied corpse
of a Mafioso, two Indians caught in a flood in
Calcutta, etc.
Benetton also launched an advertisement with a series
of masculine and feminine genitals, all different ages,
all different colors with the label “United Colors of
Benetton.” A more shocking advertisement showed
Case Study n
close-ups of various parts of the human body (pubis,
arms, stomach, bottom) tattooed with the English
abbreviation “HIV Positive.” The tattoo mark was
similar to the numbers tattooed by Nazis on
concentration camp prisoners.
Benetton advertisements
also promoted homosexuality:
Two smiling men cheek to
cheek, two women—one
white and the other black,
holding an Asian baby,
wrapped in the same
blanket, etc. Other
controversial advertisements
included a black stallion
mounting a white mare, three identical human hearts,
with stickers announcing different ethnic groups
“white, black and yellow.” The hearts portrayed that
everybody was the same in the inside, no matter what
the outside skin color was.
Apart from advertisements for billboards and
magazines, Benetton also created a number of
catalogs titled “People and Places.” Catalog themes
included Young People in Tokyo, Sunflowers
(featuring children with Down’s Syndrome),
Jerusalem, Ponzano (Italy), Corleone (Italy), China,
India, etc. These catalogs featured pictures of people
from the above-mentioned countries. In 1998,
Benetton used images of Arabs and Jews living and
working together in Israel. Titled “Enemies,” the cover
showed a kiss between a 24-year-old Israeli student
and her 22-year-old Bedouin boyfriend. The catalog
included photos of an Arab grocer and a Jewish
customer, Jewish and Arab youth leaders, a mixed
kindergarten of Jewish and Arab kids, a music band
comprising of Jews and Arabs, etc.
In January 2000, Benetton released its death-row
advertising campaign, which featured prisoners who
had been sentenced to death. The campaign appeared
on billboards and in major publications in Europe,
America and Asia. The advertisements featured full
color faces of death-row inmates, printing their names
and dates of execution. A special booklet and video
was also released that aimed at showing the reality
and futility of capital punishment. The booklet included
photos of 26 inmates and interviews in which they
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Case Study n GLOBAL CEO n November 2002

discussed about life and their punishment. Benetton issues themselves. In various countries, this has
thought that if the public saw these inmates as already happened. As more and more people
“people,” then they would be less inclined to see the understand our position and the urgency of these
prisoners executed and more inclined to support issues, we hope to become the vehicle for
against death penalty. discussion and not its focus.”
The campaign resulted in widespread protests from One leading magazine summarized Benetton’s
customers as well as government bodies. The families advertisements:
of the victims and prisoners objected strongly to the “They seem to take the virtuous stand for the
campaign. The state of Missouri (US) where the betterment of humanity and thus create a sense
inmates in question were imprisoned filed a suit of power in the viewer who agrees with the safe,
against the company stating that they were mislead politically correct message, even if the message
regarding the use of the photos that were taken. is made with shocking images. By empowering
Over the years, many newspapers in many countries the viewer, the consumer, the company associates
itself with engineered
refused to print Benetton
feelings of empowerment
advertisements. In 1995,
and righteousness. Through
government authorities in Toscani’s responsibility, as the use of such images
Germany banned Benetton Benetton’s creative director, Benetton as a company has
advertisements featuring child was to document social become icon for this kind of
laborers, the human body
stamped “HIV Positive,” and
realities rather than protest in advertising which
promote sales tries to claim the ability for
a bird stuck in an oil slick. They
social change. In reality,
were banned because these
Benetton creates an
advertisements exploited
empowered viewer who will
suffering. The newborn advertisement was
buy their product through shock value,
withdrawn from the media in Italy, France and UK.
empowerment and memorability.”
The more the company’s advertisements were
banned, the more Benetton got publicity. Benetton Benetton and Oliviero Toscani
was also sued by many of its retail outlets that believed
the provocative advertisements drove away The strong force behind Benetton’s advertisements
customers. Many retailers criticized Benetton’s was Oliviero Toscani who created advertisements
strategy: the less traditional way. Toscani’s responsibility, as
Benetton’s creative director, was to document social
“We are talking about two different arenas here. realities rather than promote sales. He explained his
If Benetton wanted to underwrite some cause, role in the company:
we’d be supportive. But we’re trying to sell
products. At this point everyone should know “Nobody ever told me my job was to sell anything.
what Benetton is. But we still find a lot of people I’m responsible for the company’s
who know the name but don’t know what we sell.” communications; I’m not responsible for its
economics. Benetton has given me incredible
Luciano Benetton responded to retailers and other freedom to propose issues that should be
protestors about its questionable advertising themes: communicated. To be really contemporary, an up-
“We are aware of the controversy that some of to-date company, we must take our communication
our images have caused, but we believe that all in another direction. Not the one usually followed
worthwhile stances will have supporters and by most companies, in the apparel business, at
detractors. Our hope is that people will move from least- when there’s an obvious connection
the sterile discussion of whether or not a company between product, model and merchandizing. I’m
is entitled to illustrate its point of view in its aware that, having a relatively big budget, it would
advertising campaigns, to a discussion of the be like throwing money away if we only explained

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GLOBAL CEO n November 2002 Case Study n

that our product is better than the competition’s. He latter added:

Advertising should give something more... That’s
“To be successful advertising has to disconnect
my work, to report something that exists. We can’t
the message from the product and forget about
be like ostriches who put their head in the sand.”
marketing, which standardizes everything. I
His advertising style was in strict contrast to most don’t do the same thing other people do. I use
advertising styles and he identified a number of drawbacks products to focus on the major problems
in traditional advertising. In an interview he commented: besetting humanity. I’ve proved that it can be
“There is a crisis in advertising. The industry is profitable. Since I’ve been working for
lagging behind social trends, but it’s so rich and Benetton, the company has grown tenfold.
powerful that it’s very difficult for it to change. Advertising people hate me but they have to
In the early twentieth century advertising focused admit that I’ve won.”
on a company’s buildings and machines. After that
it started presenting products. Then, since all Following the controversy surrounding the death row
products started looking alike, they could no campaign, Oliviero Toscani quit Benetton in May
longer be at the heart of the 2000. Benetton realized that it
message. So in the 1960s had crossed even the
advertisers started showing Benetton, however, boundaries of unconventional
leggy models to sell cars. maintained that the company advertising with the death-row
The long legs offered added campaign. Various surveys
would still maintain its suggested that loyal customers
value. The product took a
back seat and what was sold
“socially responsible” image also decided against shopping
was a symbol. The problem by working on non- at Benetton. Following
with this technique is that controversial causes Toscani’s exit, Benetton
the message is always based highlighted its advertising
on consumers’ shortcomings strategy for the future:
and makes them feel guilty. It tells them, ‘if you
“We need to have models wearing our clothes
haven’t got this product, you’re out of it. On the
other hand, if you buy a certain brand of sports by UCB in our advertisements. We need to show
shoes you can play like Ronaldo even if you can’t consumers that we are an actual clothing line,
kick a ball.” and not a political or governmental company.
By picturing our stylish clothes, we will attract
He believes that the industry as a whole should more business. Consumers want to buy our
change the way advertisements are used. The reason clothes because they are attractive and have a
being that consumer-spending pattern had changed high quality reputation. People who respect our
over the years. He explained: clothing line are the only ones that actually buy
“They have to be more creative, but the advertising it, despite the political issues that we represent.
industry couldn’t care less about creativity. It If we can undo the damage that we have already
wants to perpetuate the system to keep on living caused in the minds of many consumers by
off it. The fact is that advertisers must explain the ceasing to offend them, our sales will greatly
client company’s philosophy. If they’re successful, increase. Let’s show the world that we make
consumers will work out for themselves that the great clothing, not that we have controversial
products are good. To capture their attention, opinions on various subjects.”
advertising must become an artistic product in
itself, like a play or a film. That has never Benetton, however, maintained that the company
happened because the only things that condition would still maintain its “socially responsible” image
the industry are money and marketing managers, by working on non-controversial causes like racial
who are idiots. All they know how to do is repeat discrimination, poverty, child labor, AIDS
what’s already been done.” awareness, etc. n
Reference # 15-02-11-09

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