Oliviero Toscani's job title was Creative Director and Photographer for the Benetton Group starting in 1982. Under the way of Oliviero Toscani, the Benetton Group got a very doubtful marketing campaign. The Benetton Group used shock advertising until Oliviero Toscani's last campaign about fatality row inmates. Customers and merchants alike didn't approve of the particular advertising campaign. This occurred in the entire year 2000 and caused Toscani to leave the company. The Benetton Group has since turned their advertising to more traditional methods under the route of Wayne Mollison (Ganesan 2, 8-10). There are specific basic aims of advertising. When Benetton used shock advertising, it possessed both pros and cons. There are still certain companies that use distress advertising today, but not to sell clothing and accessories.
There are many basic aims of advertising. The main basic goal of advertising is to influence the client to buy the product or service that the business enterprise is advertising. Our textbook identifies marketing goals as, "what's to be accomplished by the overall marketing program. " (Belch 33). The objective of most advertising is to solve issues or matter for the customer. Another objective is to be sure that no one is offended by the advertising. The advertising should show the merchandise or service in a positive light that will somehow gain the client. Our textbook identifies pr as it relates to a good image as follows, "generally has a broader objective than publicity, as its goal is to establish and maintain a positive image of the business among its various publics" (Belch 25).
Before they appointed Oliviero Toscani to be their Creative Director and Photographer, they used another advertising agency. It kept Benetton big money to do their advertising in-house. Luciano Benetton, one of the original owners of the business, approved most of Oliviero Toscani's work (Ganesan 6). The main advertising goal for Benetton while Toscani was responsible for it was to make the public alert to controversial cultural and political issues (Ganesan 1). These issues were at the heart of the advertising, while the Benetton label appeared as if just a footnote in the advert (Ganesan 6, 7). Some people may not have even known these were advertising for Benetton. Visitors must interpret the message advertisers are trying to communicate to them. Our textbook discusses the quality of the advertising communication by stating, "Many advertisements are objective, and their concept is clear and simple. Other ads will be more ambiguous, and their meaning is strongly inspired by the consumer's specific interpretation" (Belch 121). Benetton's distress advertising could be interpreted in another way depending on every individual person. This pertains to the idea of selective comprehension. Our textbook discusses selective understanding by stating, "Consumers may take part in selective understanding, interpreting information on the basis of their own attitudes, values, motives, and experience" (Belch 122). The purpose of advertising is to persuade the customer to purchase your product or service. Unless the product or service the company is trying to sell relates to a specific social or political issue, it should not be mentioned in the advertising. Benetton's product symbolism was the social and political issues that it was seeking to make the general public become aware. Our textbook discusses product symbolism and states, "For many products, strong symbolic features and social and psychological so this means may be more important than efficient electricity" (Belch 61). After Toscani remaining the business, they focused more on traditional advertising where the product was the central concentrate, along with a positive take a look at an issue (Ganesan 13). For example, the advertising campaign after Oliviero Toscani still left centered on being a volunteer [Amount (x) on web page 10]. Some other issues tackled after Toscani left Benetton that weren't portrayed in a questionable way included worldwide appetite, protecting human privileges, poverty, and child labor (Ganesan 10, 14). Sociable and political triggers were Benetton's note (Ganesan 1). Our textbook states the following regarding a company's meaning, "The encoding process contributes to development of a note that contains the info or meaning the foundation hopes to convey. The meaning may be verbal or nonverbal, dental or written, or symbolic" (Belch 148).
There are both pros and cons to Benetton's impact advertising campaign. One of the advantages of Benetton's great shock advertising campaign is the fact that it attempted to educate people on the various social and political concerns happening at that time. The customers seeing the advertisement may pay closer attention and begin talking about the problem. It gives visitors a website for open discourse of a concern (Ganesan 1). Soon after Oliviero Toscani began working at Benetton, the sociable issues such as people of different races doing things alongside one another and getting along were the principal focus. These images portray positive ways of considering and encourage unity among different races (Ganesan 4). For instance, Shape (i) that is shown on web page 4 has a multi-racial group of individuals smiling and hugging. Furthermore, Picture 4 on site 15 of the adult white side against the child's black hands work, positive images. Although Figure (viii) on webpage 8 looks a little unpleasant, the subject matter is positive and just a little uplifting. Nevertheless, as more time continued, the advertising campaign going by Oliviero Toscani began to get disturbing, particularly when it was focused on the politics issues. Among the drawbacks of Benetton's great shock advertising campaign is that the images shown can offend some viewers (Ganesan 13). Children do not really need to see some of those images. The overcrowded Albanian ship surprised me (Picture 11 on page 16). It just made me realize that all those little dots shown on the website were all people-individual human beings. Picture 15 on page 17 was a little shocking also because all those little dots on there are portraying real people who have AIDS. A number of the images I saw offended me and I must say i didn't want to check out them. In particular, Picture 5 on page 15 with the white angelic-looking gal next to the black lady with her mane looking like horns. I really do not see any purpose to this ad. This picture is the total opposite of the last pictures that encouraged racial unity. It appears like, that in this case, Benetton is being inconsistent with the past advertising. The plan glamorizing death row inmates [Figure (ix) on webpage 9 and Picture 13 on page 17] was the most shocking. This was the same marketing campaign that triggered Oliviero Toscani's departure from the business, for good reason. Fifteen million dollars was allocated to this advertising campaign that offended and surprised so many people. (Ganesan 2, 8-10). This marketing campaign used the loss of life row inmates as shock value in order to market their product. I do not understand what showing fatality row inmates is due to selling clothing or accessories. Some issues do not need to be attended to, especially worldwide, via an advertising campaign. They lost vendors, specifically Sears, and were sued by the subjects' families. That is the result of their insensitive marketing campaign. This entire marketing campaign has brought on bad publicity for the Benetton name (Ganesan 8-10). Our textbook talks about negative promotion by stating that, "Publicity is not always under the control of a business and is sometimes unfavorable. Negative stories in regards to a company and/or its products can be quite detrimental" (Belch 24). That's what occurred in this situation with Benetton. It put their name out in the public, but in a poor light. In addition, it tainted their reputation (Ganesan 2).
I definitely do not agree with Oliviero Toscani's thoughts and opinions that it's acceptable for offensive images to maintain fine art and journalism, then offensive images should be satisfactory in the advertising industry. Offensive images are not acceptable in skill, journalism, or advertising. Among the goals of advertising is to attempt to persuade customers to buy your product or service. I really do not know how an image of a new baby baby using their umbilical wire still attached [Figure (vi), webpage 7] persuades the client to buy Benetton clothes.
An advertising campaign that uses great shock advertising is the anti-smoking commercials. This is appropriate because they are trying to let the viewer know the results of smoking and inform viewers that smoking may eventually kill you. Some individuals do not think that bad things will ever before happen to them. Discovering a commercial like this may really surprise a audience into giving up smoking to boost their overall health. Some of these commercials are incredibly difficult to watch and never have to turn away. For example, the commercial they currently show where they slice into the brain of someone who was only in their 30s to show that they perished of a heart stroke from smoking. Another anti-smoking commercial that sticks in my own mind that really stunned me was when they revealed the artery and squeezed out all the plaque that was developed from smoking. The subject matter of the commercial was to show that smoking creates plaque up in your arteries, that will eventually wipe out you. Anti-smoking advertising also uses dread appeals to try to stop folks from smoking. Our textbook discusses dread appeals and state governments, "Fear can be an emotional response to a menace that expresses, or at least implies, some sort of danger. Advertising sometimes use fear attracts evoke this psychological response and arouse individuals to take steps to remove the threat" (Belch 197).
A commercial for something that actually has something regarding a controversial interpersonal issue is when stunning advertising would be appropriate to work with. It shocks people into doing something about the challenge. For instance, the commercials they have on tv now for the ASPCA that show animals that contain been hurt or are battling. Those commercials surprise you due to abuse the pets or animals suffer. But, they are a charitable organization that is soliciting money for the ASPCA to help these family pets, so that is why they are appropriate. The images they show on the advertisements are related to the reason they want to get money for. The pets have no control of how people treat them. This tugs at the heartstrings of individuals who love animals. The tune "Angel" plays in the backdrop and the performer Sarah McLachlan comes on to speak out against canine abuse and neglect and asks for donations to the ASPCA. Another shock-advertising commercial that they show frequently on tv is for The Humane Contemporary society of america. These advertisements have the same sort of subject matter as the ASPCA. These advertisements shock me and remain in my brain because I remember the image of the overfilled cage of puppies shown on them.
Another circumstance where great shock advertising is employed and is satisfactory is good for the Christian Children's Finance. The commercials show children that are dirty and living in squalor to be able to solicit cash for their charitable organization. They show a child living in surprising conditions and ask the viewer to sponsor a kid for just a certain amount of money each day or month. The commercial says that many children have perished just because they are poor and don't have enough healthy food or clean water. These commercials are usually shown late during the night and the announcer says something about how the viewer should do it right now while they are really just watching tv set and have nothing at all else to do. They certainly want the viewer to place it off until tomorrow since it will be too later part of the then. It really is appropriate to use shock advertising when a charity or non-profit organization is deploying it to solicit cash for their organization.
I whole-heartedly trust Benetton's decision to stop their great shock advertising and return to advertising that is more traditional. There's a time and place for everything, and shocking people in order to market clothes is not it. If Benetton's goal was to bring questionable issues to the attention of people, it will have been done in another forum. And, if Toscani insisted on great shock advertising, it will only be in an adult-type environment where children don't need to see images that offend men and women. An alternative might have been to set apart minimal their advertising money into the impact advertising and the rest into traditional advertising. An organization should want to put a confident image in their advertising to market their products, not negative images that some individuals may think of as offensive. These surprising images are probably the images that people keep in mind most in their brain and therefore forget what the merchandise is that the company was selling.
Benetton's distress advertising was negative and offensive to many people. Viewers may bear in mind the advertising because of the shock value from it. However, we may never understand how many people really kept in mind that those stunning images were an attempt to sell Benetton clothes. The basic goal of advertising had not been found under Oliviero Toscani's course. There is no logical reason to try to sell clothes with images which may have nothing in connection with clothes. There are times when shock advertising is appropriate, but offering Benetton clothing and accessories is not just one of these.
