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Shades of controversy
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The controversial head of Benetton has set his sights on India, writes HEMANGINI GUPTA
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Luciano Benetton insists that the controversial ads are actually social messages. _ Photo: Murali Kumar K.
A BLACK horse mounting a white mare, a man on his deathbed as he succumbs to AIDS, a little white girl portrayed as an angel and a little black girl shown as a devil. For years, Benetton was synonymous with its shock campaigns dominated by startling photographs, only a small green tag by the side announcing the actual product: `United Colors of Benetton'.
Sixty-nine-year-old Luciano Benetton, who founded the company with his siblings after his father's death, has always maintained Benetton is not just about selling clothes. "I wanted to communicate with the common person who was not necessarily a buyer of my product," Luciano explains. "It's a little selfish to look at ads just to promote your clothes — we also have a social message to communicate with people who have never bought the clothes."
Stark ads
The maverick team of Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani (the creative genius behind some of the company's most notorious campaigns) was formed in the early '80s and went on to unleash a string of advertisements, claiming to promote multiculturalism and defy stereotypes. Backed by Luciano Benetton, Toscani's campaigns used everyday people to present images of war, epidemics, ethnic conflict, and strife. These campaigns were often criticised and Benetton accused of raking up controversy to sell his products. But he stood by his ads, even such controversial images as the little white angel and the little black girl (with her hair tied up to appear like the devil's horns).
"I don't use my campaigns as just photographs," says Luciano Benetton. "The images reflect common perceptions of the public. For instance if you look closely at the black girl's eyes, they seem angelic but the white girl's eyes appear diabolic."
Sobering down
Not all of Benetton's explanations have been received warmly and in 2000, an ad showing prisoners on death row led to Sears offloading their clothes and Benetton subsequently offloading Toscani. The company has opened its doors to professional managers and enlisted on the stock market. The current ad campaigns are considerably toned down, and it's the marketing guru Benetton, not the maverick owner — who once posed nude for an ad campaign — who appeared in India. Leaving the controversy behind, Luciano Benetton appears to have wised up to the market.
"We are aiming to open six mega stores in India by next year and another 20 in the next two years," says Benetton. "The world is talking positively about India and China and there's going to be huge economic development here."
New line
The company's Autumn-Winter collection unveiled with a fashion show at the new store showed vintage Benetton: bright colours, woollen knits, trendy bags and corduroys. "Youngsters are the same everywhere," says Luciano Benetton. "Temperature, climate and cultures may change but the youngsters are the same. Our fashions originate from Europe and is exported to other parts of the world."
The Benetton store in Bangalore is at the Forum mall.
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