Benetton's UNHATE campaign is an attempt to foster an environment of reconciliation. The campaign puts leaders with conflicting ideologies and /or tense relationships in a gesture of the embrace.
Similar to critical art, Benetton is using an existing social narrative to present a hypothesis, one that we can immediately translate and understand. It is also using aesthetic codes to pose broader questions about the tensions, for instance, the number of kissing couples, the act of kissing, the candid aesthetic, the feel of the image shot from a distance, the close-up head shot - what do all of these suggest?
Ultimately Benetton is using social commentary to craft an image of itself as a company that is provocative, edgy, socially aware and conscious. And it is using this image of itself to sell it's products.
Is the fact that Benetton uses social commentary to sell it’s goods undermining the social comment? Does it dilute it’s impact? Does it pose ethical questions?
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