Benetton Advertisements

The clothing company, United Colors of Benetton, used the power of images to create ad campaigns which sparked public controversy. Benetton used pictures of death row inmates as well as a photo of a man dying of AIDS in order to draw attention to their clothing line and boost sales. Some would argue that this is unethical I argue that this is pragmatic. The use of powerful images does increase profits and is the practical thing for a company to do, even if the images don't have anything to do with the direct interests of the company. Benetton did a good job of creating a buzz which put their name into the public eye. According to the reading, the target audience of Benetton was 18-24 year-olds and none of the emotionally appealing images were negative towards that age group. This is a prime example of finding a target audience and not offending them. Actually, the photo of the dying man would also bring attention to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, benefitting society as well as the clothing company. Bringing forth emotion, even if it is negative emotion, is the goal of any ad campaign and as long as a photographer legally obtains the photos for the use of the campaign, they should not be regarded as wrong or unethical. It is the job of photos to persuade, and as long as the public is aware that companies like Benetton are creating the images, paying for them, and advocating for their product than the use of powerful images is acceptable. Images that result from decisive moment photography are often controvercial and that is what makes them interesting and it is acceptable for companies to take advantage of dramatic images.