The Channel of transmission and if McDonalds were Benetton…

Controversial, but yet a fairly fresh approach at the time, Tosacani’s ad campaigns for Benetton clothing over the years have certainly raised discussion and been memorable. Whilst a lot of people, including myself at times have wondered at what they were trying to say, or if indeed they were just trying to be shocking… Afterall, any PR is good PR, as long as people are talking about you. But what was it really about?

Benetton Kissing Nun 1991

Well, here is a statement by Toscani which sums it up.

I am not here to sell pullovers, but to promote an image... Benetton’s advertising draws public attention to universal themes like racial integration, the protection of the environment, Aids... 

– Oliviero Toscani, Benetton Art Director and Photographer 

His idea and approach was to make Benetton clothing the clothing of choice for people concerned with the wider issues in society at the time. To promote discussion about these issues and therefore associate the Benetton brand with being connected with these issues. 

Benetton Food for Life 2003

However, from his essay, the photographic message, Barthes says, “The photograph is a message. Considered overall this message is formed by a source of emission, a channel of transmission and a point of reception” (Barthes, 1977, P15) I don’t think Toscani really appreciated these points. Is it possible for the average consumer of clothing and us as consumers of images to fully appreciate what he was trying to do? Or do these images just come over as strange and a bit controversial? 

The issue here is the truly an illustration of what Barthes is saying. On the one hand here is an image which firmly aimed at social issues, but the channel of transmission is and advert and the point of reception is us the general public, who probably don’t know the statement behind it, since we only see the advert. Therefore we are presented with a perhaps shocking image that is connected with a clothing brand. Here we will ask ourselves why? What has this to do with clothing? What are they trying to sell us?

Depending on the brand associated with this style of advertising the message could get very controversial and skewed very quickly, imagine for a second if McDonalds adopted this method for an ad campaign? I am not sure anyone would tolerate this…