The Pros And Cons Of Benetton's Shock Advertising Campaign

One of the pros of Benetton 's shock advertising campaign is that it attempted to educate people on the various social and political concerns happening at that time. The customers watching the advertisement may pay closer attention and start talking about the issue. It gives viewers a forum for open discussion of an issue (Ganesan 1). Shortly after Oliviero Toscani started working at Benetton, the social issues such as people of different races doing things together and getting along were the primary focus. These images portray positive ways of thinking and encourage unity among different races (Ganesan 4).

For example, Appendix 1 has a multi-racial group of people smiling and hugging. In addition, Appendix 2 shows a picture of the adult white hand against the child 's black hand are appropriate, positive images. Although appendix 3 looks a little unpleasant, the message is positive and a little uplifting. Nevertheless, as more time went on, the advertising campaign headed by Oliviero Toscani started to get disturbing, especially when it was concentrated on the political issues.

There is one main objective which shock advertising accomplishes, grabbing the attention of the viewer (Colyer, 2002), but Benetton publically uses a statement by Luciano Benetton, which says that "communication should not be commissioned from outside the company, but conceived from within its heart" (Benetton Group, 2009). They go on to say "actual consumption is repositioned within the overall