Benetton goes back to advertising actual clothes

Via The Drum

Yeah, that's right. After years of pushing the boundaries of shock advertising, culminating with 2011's extremely popular/controversial Unhate campaign, Benetton suddenly remembered what it is that they sell: Not just attitude, but the means to express it.

From the Press Release:

The future of United Colors of Benetton is ever more colourful. Newly interpreted, color returns to the forefront in an iconic Spring/Summer 2013 fashion campaign which uses the original stories of a cosmopolitan team of ambassadors to illustrate United Colors of Benetton's passion, innovation and openness to the world, looking to the future and embracing the challenges of tomorrow.  

This campaign breaks new ground for the Benetton Group brand. Starting this season and using an ever changing set of ambassadors, it rolls out a totally new format based – in the words of Chairman Alessandro Benetton – on “the iconic value of color – a founding value for United Colors of Benetton and once again at the centre of our aesthetics and communications – to give a powerful assertion of the identity and excellence of this brand, which holds diversity as a value, and the unity of differences as a wealth to be treasured.” 

The 2013 campaign features Sudanese humanitarian activist Alek Wek (above), Tunisian model Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, British actress/model/granddaughter-of-Charlie-Chaplin Kiera Chaplin, Californian mode Charlotte Free, British actor and model Dudley O’Shaughnessy, differently-abled German model Mario Galla, Uruguayan chef Matias Perdomo, trans-sexual Brazilian model Lea T, , and American model Elettra Wiedemann.

Charlotte Free, via Vogue Italia

Dudley O’Shaughnessy, via Vogue Italia

Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, via Vogue Italia

Kiera Chaplin, via Vogue Italia

Lea T, via Vogue Italia

Mario Galla, Via Vogue Italia

Elettra Wiedemann, via Vogue Italia

Matias Perdomo, via Vogue Italia

Not exactly all the "colours" of the world represented here (and nobody is fat or old) but Benetton claims they chose their models more based on who they are than where they came from. It's a good approach, going back-to-basics, while still clearly positioning Benetton as a brand for global diversity and individual expression. It may not win them a lot of hardware at Cannes, but by showing the product maybe... just maybe...  they'll actually sell more of it.

The campaign was developed under the creative direction of Fabrica (in-house) in cooperation with Macs Iotti.

Benetton shakes up NYC with a sexy yarn bomb

Via Animal NY

Provocative marketing is nothing new to United Colors of Benetton, but how can the Italian fashion brand break through to jaded New Yorkers?

Animal NY reports that this "tastefully vulgar" sculpture by Erik Ravelo was placed in their new pop-up location in Soho.

Here's a picture with more context, from Gothamist:

An Instagrammer named samhorine posted a shot of the display, taking it viral, where user "oneoffive" made a comment after my own heart:

It certainly is a very confronting image, but I believe our children see things just as confronting on music videos. Unlike a woman grinding her butt in a guys face like on these video clips, most kids won't even realise what they are seeing when they see this display. And if they do, it's probably time to teach them a little bit about the facts of life. And yes, I have kids. @samhorine very interesting feed you have started! I'm sure this is exactly what the store owners had in mind when they put the display up, hundreds of people talking about it!

Exactly. I rail a lot about sleazy sex in advertising, but this doesn't feel like that. It's explicit, but it's a far more naturalistic portrayal of "the facts of life" that I wouldn't be upset for my 8-y-o son to see. (Since he comments on the squirrels doing it on our daily walks to school.)

Cynical shock marketing ploy? Sure. But we've all seen worse. At least this one is actually about the product it's humping.

Classic Benetton ad is still freaking out the squares

This infamous Benetton ad from 1989, by Creative director, copywriter, art director and photographer Oliviero Toscani, is still stirring up shit. A prominent Facebook breastfeeding advocacy page reports,

"Clearly Facebook doesn't like this image. This iconic, 23-year-old ad from UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON has been pulled down from countless accounts now, and [two users] have both been banned from Facebook for posting it, [one] for 24 hours, and [the other] for 3 days. It has been removed from this page several times."

A similar page has also been blocked for it.

Back in the '80s, Benetton was attempting to blow people's minds with its rather blunt attempts to show "interracial" love, understanding and equality. I wonder if people reporting on this image were more offended by the nipple itself, or that it showed a black woman nursing a white baby?

Nonetheless, Facebook remains a bastion of American breast anxiety.

See more classic Benetton ads here.