There was quite a stir last week over some pictures featured in United Colors of Benetton's UNHATE campaign. These were photos that had been photo-shopped to feature two world leaders kissing, including the likeness of President Obama, the Pope, President Chavez, Merkel and Sarkozy, just to name a few. The company explains their UNHATE campaign as:
What does UNHATE mean? UN-hate. Stop hating, if you were hating. Unhate is a message that invites us to consider that hate and love are not as far away from each other as we think. Actually, the two opposing sentiments are often in a delicate and unstable balance. Our campaign promotes a shift in the balance: don’t hate, Unhate.
It's a controversial message from a company that is well known for their controversial advertising. Benetton, an Italian company, has seen many controversies, including anger against a 1991 ad featuring a man dying from AIDs. They also have seen anger over adds featuring a new born baby with an umbilical cord still attached and a priest and nun preparing to kiss. The fall out from this recent line of kiss ads has been overwhelming as they have covered the internet. The Vatican threatened legal action over the removal of a photo of the Pope kissing a Egyptian Imam. Benetton removed the picture.
Are these controversial messages a good way of spreading a message?
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