Can advertisements change the world?

Can fashion advertisements really change the world? This question came onto my mind when I first saw an advertisement from Benetton (United colors of Benetton). Benetton is an Italian fashion brand, which was founded in 1965, and is a supporter of campaigns that brings out the idea of peace, unity and equality around the world. However, today, I would like to talk about their advertisements and particularly a photographer who inspires me.

Have you hear about an Italian photographer named Oliviero Toscani, known for designing controversial advertisements? He worked for Benetton from 1982 to 2000 and published a lot of interesting publicity. However, pictures taken by him are really difficult to distinguish at a glance. This is because his works are not to do with Benetton’s clothing fashion but about racism, war or religion. The Benetton logo is the only hint that it is an advertisement for a fashion brand.

"ship" (February, 1992)

Oliviero Toscani was born in Milan in 1942 and studied about photography and graphics in Belle Arti di Zurigo University from 1961 to 1965. Then, since 1982, he collaborated and mustered the image and identity of United colors of Benetton. Oliviero later won the premium of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Art Director Club, and many others. He and his work attracted me inmensly because it was the first time to see these kinds of advertisements. These pictures made me wonder about Oliviero’s way of thinking towards photography and advertisements. What made him take these kinds of pictures, and how would people react to these controversial and in some way aggressive photographic images? To understand these, I started to look at some fairly recent interviews and discovered an epiphany. In a CNN’s interview, done in August 18^th 2010, he said that there are people who get angry when they look at his pictures. However, he said, “These people should get angry at themselves for not having the courage to look into the problem”. This brought me to think about what photography is in nature.

Personally speaking, I believe photographs are something that has a power to change a person’s life completely. Nowadays, taking a picture has become an easy feat, and because of the development of social networking and Internet, people can publish their own works whether they are professionals or not. Additionally, many applications or developed camera allow people to process pictures without any particular skills. It is easy to find beauty in these kinds of photographs. However, looking back, when only a limited number of people could travel the world, photographs were the only, and the most accurate way to letting people know about the side of the world. In a simple picture, it portrayed another part of the world where people were not familiar with. Sometime, a single picture can have a surprising amount of influence. For example, pictures about wars could allow people to become more aware about the gravity of the situation and would then encourage pro-actionist movements in attempt to even stop the conflict.

"heart" (March, 1996)

Oliviero’s work are these kinds of photographs. They are direct and simple but carry a strong message. At first glance, these pictures would probably make you uncomfortable, or embarrassed. After a while, however, these pictures will bring people’s mind to think deeply about current affairs. As he mentioned in the interview by CNN, people can be angry because they know that there are such problems or reality, but sometimes it’s easier to ignore them. One of his answers in this interview impressed me the most, he states, “There isn’t such thing as a shocking picture, there is only shocking reality that is being reproduced through photography to the people who aren’t there”. For him, photography is the most accurate way to force people to confront reality. Images are the simplest and most accurate way to make people aware, and to then encourage them to do something about it. As he said in another interview on the 3^rd of June 2012, a good picture is something that will stay as a document of something that happened to the humanity. And fashion picture, too, is a document of human behavior.

"UNHATE" 2011

Oliviero’s retired in 2000, yet keeps publishing controversial advertisements for Benetton. 11 years later, on November 17^th 2011, on the top page of yahoo.it, interesting news was posted. It mentioned about Benetton’s advertisement publication being replaced after only 24 hours because of the strong protests. This advertisement was titled UNHATE, which were photographs of world leaders kissing each other. For example, the Supreme Leader of North Korea and South Korea. The most highlighted photograph was Pope Benedict XVI kissing Imam of Azhar due to the Vatican being position within Rome. The pope announced that he was willing to take legal action against Benetton. It concluded with Benetton agreeing to replace all these kissing advertisements and promising to not use the Pope’s picture anymore. These photographs were one of the advertisements for the foundation of the campaign UNHATE, supported by Benetton who was promoting dialogue and acceptance of diversity. What did you feel about these advertisements? Do you believe these advertisements could change the world?

Umene  Shikata

Reference

Web sites:

http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/user/profile/6476.page

http://www.olivierotoscani.com/biografia.html

http://unhate.benetton.com/

http://www.benetton.jp/company/history/

http://edition.cnn.com/201ther0/WORLD/europe/08/13/oliviero.toscani/index.html

http://www.styleclicker.net/2012/06/03/bloggers-are-lazy-interview-with-oliviero-toscani/