The Honest Adman

There is not much to say about Benetton. Nice, mid-range, fashionable but not too edgy clothing. But in the 1990s, Benetton had quite a lot to say about itself—and others had quite a lot to say about Benetton. Or, at least, about its advertising.

The campaign in question was a series of “shock ads”: billboards about social justice, under the theme “United Colours of Benetton.” The early ads were innocuous enough: a group of young people of different racial groups, for example, made a powerful statement on behalf of racial harmony while showcasing the clothing. But the ads became progressively more provocative, and when one billboard portrayed a nun and a priest kissing, that was too much for some religious groups, who protested loudly. Other ads showed a black horse and a white horse copulating, three identical human hearts labelled “black,” “white” and “yellow,” human genitals in various colours and close-ups of various parts of the human body tattooed with the...