Benetton's thought-provoking advertisments, or the lost art of artistical ads

[Nature Guardian]

When I was a kid, there was an advertisment on a road. Everytime the car would pass by that road, I would avert my eyes because it scared me.

This was the ads (warning, graphic):

Spoiler

As an adult, it doesn't scare me anymore, but even as a terrified kid, I understood what the advertisment was about and what message it conveyed.

Italian dress company Benetton has a history of making shock value ads. I could go into the history of their publicity campaigns, but I'll just show some examples.

Again on the theme of equality, in a much more subtle ads, we can see how these little girl's tongues are all the same colour:

Then they made a campaign showing real events happening in the world. It's horrifying yet there's the beauty of a skillful photo shot.

Spoiler

They made a provocative campaign for AIDS awareness:

Spoiler: NSFW

They certainly make me think about my view that death sentence is a good thing:

These speak for themselves:

Interestingly, the Pope demanded the removal of these ads. For someone who advocates love and respect for everyone, I don't think it was a good move.

Recently, they made this:

These aren't professional models, but unemployed young people that Benetton picked for the ads. All dressed up, and nowhere to go.

Interestingly, these two images are the ones which were considered more controversial:

Spoiler: NSFW

Because apparently violence and horror is far less taboo than life.


So, I've made this thread mainly because I wanted to say "look at these ads, aren't they cool and intelligent?".

But there's more: notice how none of these ads actually show the product that's being sold. Do you think it's an effective strategy? Do you think it's good to have intelligent advertisments like these on the street, or do you think they are too dark?

Mod Edit: I put some of the images in NSFW boxes due to their nudity.

 

[Story]

I've seen a majority of these ads in my graphic design class in college.
Yes I think they are pretty clever, but they are clever because they mean to provoke and shock. Which also allows discussion of the company because of controversy. But I do feel these fail at telling me more about the company's products. These ads are good at expressing the company's political views but terrible at telling me what they are actually advertising. When I first saw them I thought they were add for some sort of social wellness or advocacy group. Who can blame me? Social service ads are usually like this as well as law ads, thought-provoking I mean. They are good at what they do.

 

[Nature Guardian]

Eh, I always seen these types of advertisements as "reaffirming ideas" rather than any actual impact. I mean, is there really a person who'd say "wait black people hears are not full of spikes?", or a person who'd see those children laboring and will actually remember it in 5 minutes? More likely he/she'll think how great they are to think that child labor is bad and proceed to do diddly squat.

It's a thing I've grown to despise, the ideas themselves are about as "extreme" as a Saturday morning cartoon, nothing meaningful that wasn't heard a billion times if you've been connected to the media in any way the last two decades and the only meaning in it is for people to think how progressive they are.

Also the pope can ask for the removal, it is without his consent and the baby is not something people with weak stomach will want to see.

I disagree with your view.

When you don't see something, it's very easy to ignore it.

These ads force you to see something you're not going to see.

Without these ads, you're not going to stop and think about these issues.

Spoiler: Thank you to Story for suggesting me to google social issue ads.

Without these ads, you're going to ignore what is happening. And if knowledge is power, ignorance is powerlessness.

And I'd like to say that I'm someone in favor of death penalty, but these ads against it disturb me very much.

 

[Story]

Spoiler: Thank you to Story for suggesting me to google social issue ads.

Without these ads, you're going to ignore what is happening. And if knowledge is power, ignorance is powerlessness.

And I'd like to say that I'm someone in favor of death penalty, but these ads against it disturb me very much.

You're welcome. Driving down my main road there were a few that I thought were really good and thought provoking without showing much gore. I wish I could find them on Google. In the mean time here's a good "drive safely ad" that is actually very famous (though not as famous that ones you posted).

Spoiler: This one bleeds when it rains. Telling the driver to be careful on the road especially during hazardous weather.

 

[Nature Guardian]

Spoiler: Thank you to Story for suggesting me to google social issue ads.

Without these ads, you're going to ignore what is happening. And if knowledge is power, ignorance is powerlessness.

And I'd like to say that I'm someone in favor of death penalty, but these ads against it disturb me very much.

You're welcome. Driving down my main road there were a few that I thought were really good and thought provoking without showing much gore. I wish I could find them on Google. In the mean time here's a good "drive safely ad" that is actually very famous (though not as famous that ones you posted).

Spoiler: This one bleeds when it rains. Telling the driver to be careful on the road especially during hazardous weather.

That's a good social advertisment: it drives the point across and makes you think, without giving you nightmares.

My only issue with social ads is that they want to scare you. Which is how you stop people from doing stupid things, but sometimes, it goes beyond driving the message across and it disturbs you too much.

Personally, what I like about the Benetton ads is that they manage to disturb you while being actually beautiful like works of art.
Ok, wait, thinking about that Benetton banner which I mentioned terrified me as a kid, maybe it's not all true.

I wonder, however, if these ads work. I mean.... aren't awful people just so awful that even a shocking ads campaign can't move them? Otherwise they wouldn't be awful people.

 

[Nickolai77]

Just had to google United Colors of Benetton to remind me what they actually sell. If I'd only seen those adverts I'd think they were some sort of social justice campaign group.

I don't really like these adverts, even though I agree with the political points they're putting across, because:

1: I feel they're being controversial for the sake of gaining attention. The slight irony is that the messages themselves they're pushing here 'war is bad, racism is bad, poverty is bad etc' isn't really controversial at all, but the means of delivering the message is. It's like they're being edgy for the sake of being edgy, like a comedian making controversial jokes for the sake of getting attention rather than through the quality of their work.


2: The adverts don't tell me anything about their products. I feel a fundamental basis of any advertising should tell me what the company does and sells. Maybe some very large companies with globally recognised brands like McDonalds or CokeCola can get away with vague adverts but I think Benetton is overestimating itself if it thinks everyone's going to remember they're a clothes retailer.



3: I don't want to see gore images in advertising. My interest in history, politics and by extension, warfare, means I've seen a reasonable amount of gore and death in my time but I don't like to be visually ambushed by pictures of dead bodies, human hearts in my day to day life. Shock advertising annoys me, and for that reason it's going to stop me buying your product.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I really hate these kinds of ads.

They're about as useful as Bono's red charity that spends money on "raising awareness" but doesn't actually do anything.

Raising awareness doesn't do anything if these are issues everyone knows about. Yes, the ice caps are melting, yes racism is a thing, yes, people are still starving in third world countries, telling me about it does nothing. How about instead of paying millions on dollars for these ads that don't do anything you spend the money to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING HELPFUL.

I'm sure those starving children would appreciate a million dollars worth of sandwiches a hell of a lot more than a bunch of 100 foot pictures of themselves spread across the world.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Speaking of adverts, I recently saw this one on imgur;

Now, it's a terrible message and an even worse URL, but it's a great advert.
I just... wanted to mention it and look cool.

Also I'm not sure artistical is a real word.

 

[Nature Guardian]

Speaking of adverts, I recently saw this one on imgur;

Now, it's a terrible message and an even worse URL, but it's a great advert.
I just... wanted to mention it and look cool.

Also I'm not sure artistical is a real word.

Oh my god, I hope this one is fake.

 

[Nature Guardian]

And you see that issue for exactly the amount of time you look at the ads and then forget about it. The ads are the equivalent to two girls one cup. Wanting to change something means having a conversation on what people can do, not just punch you in the face with the issue and yell "it exists!"

I don't forget about it.

Maybe I'm just more receptive than the average person, but the message of these ads stays with me.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Well, it's not provoking any thoughts here. Just random shots of "pigs in trash" or "newborn baby" or "good looking people without a job" or "criminal on death row" or "look at our photoshop skills". I don't see the point to be honest. It's like, hey, this exists. You don't say. Are they doing anything about it though? Something tells me most of the money is spent on these "shocking" ads than whatever cause they're supporting.

This is one of the few effective ads I can think of:

 

[Nature Guardian]

Well, it's not provoking any thoughts here. Just random shots of "pigs in trash" or "newborn baby" or "good looking people without a job" or "criminal on death row" or "look at our photoshop skills". I don't see the point to be honest. It's like, hey, this exists. You don't say. Are they doing anything about it though? Something tells me most of the money is spent on these "shocking" ads than whatever cause they're supporting.

This is one of the few effective ads I can think of:

I don't seem to understand: first you say those ads are just shock value, then you praise an ad that is just shock value.

I can use your same logic and claim that advertisment is only "look at these people suffering and dying". Hey, this exists. You don't say.

Not being aggressive here, just trying to understand what's the difference between the Benetton ads and that one you liked.
For me, the only difference is that the Benetton ads also counted as artistic value, regardless of the message.