Benetton

I went into my Fashion lecture the other day and we had a lecture on Benetton and the photography of Toscani. It was really interesting as Toscani was able to be extremely controversial with his photographs and the message he was getting across. They ranged from war to aids and to prisoners on death row, not the usual fashion pictures here! However i really liked his work and how he strived to make people think with his advertising and challenge common prejudices.

A common theme he ran down was racism and this is what the top image symbolises, you actually don't no which person in handcuffs is the guard and which is the prisoner. It then has the tag line 'United colours of Benetton' underneath. I like this as the type does not take over from the power of the picture but gets across what these photographs were advertising which is essence was a clothing company.

The second photograph is focused on war. A member of the public actually sent these clothes to Toscani, they were the clothes her son was killed in. She then wrote that she wanted peace to come out of people seeing the horrors of war which Toscani included along the top of the photograph. This is a very powerful image and you can not help but to stop and think.

It was therefore a very effective advertising campaign even though it was almost completely off the point of fashion and the clothing industry. It made people stop in their tracks and take the time to think about what you were saying.