“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.” – United Colors of Benetton, Unhate Campaign.
United Colors of Benetton is back in the news for their latest controversial ad campaign titled Unhate which features world leaders kissing. The images are startling at first glance with U.S. President Barack Obama kissing Chinese President Hu Jintao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel with French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Of course these images have been digitally altered and though most leaders haven’t reacted to the images yet the Vatican has decided to the send Benetton a legal notice regarding the image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing Egyptian Imam Ahmed el Tayyeb be removed. Benetton has pulled the image down from their official website and said they were “sorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful.” Many people have shunned this campaign including The New York Times which has declined from featuring these images in their paper.
This isn’t the first time Benetton has been involved with a controversial campaign that highlights a social issue they’ve often used shock advertising to get promote a cause they strongly believed. They’ve raised awareness on race issues by having an image of a black woman breastfed a white baby and taken pictures of real death row inmates to show their concern over capital punishment. The question is, have they gone too far with the Unhate campaign? Is it wrong of them to have morphed images of world leaders even though their message is positive? Tell us what you think!