UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON | UNHATE | 2012
Can a Kiss Erase Hate? / BENETTON "UNHATE"
Obama and Hu Jintao. Netanyahu and Abbas. The Pope and an imam, kissing. The moment these posters went up in cities, the world reacted. Within hours the Vatican was furious, calling it a "grave lack of respect," and the poster of the Pope was taken down. That reaction was probably part of the plan all along.
The problem
In 2011, the world was full of division. Benetton, the brand that once provoked the world with ads like Toscani's "dying AIDS patient," had lost its bite by the 2000s, and its business was struggling too. Vice chairman Alessandro set the brief: "Global Love." But talking about love felt too sweet. So they decided to start from something more grounded: stopping hate.
The insight
According to creative director Carlo Cavallone, telling people to love their enemies is too idealistic. What's realistic is simply stopping the hating first. A kiss between opposing leaders works as both a symbol of love and a pure provocation. That double meaning is what gave this ad its power.
The idea
Obama and Hu Jintao. Netanyahu and Abbas. Merkel and Sarkozy. Obama and Chávez. Kim Jong-il and Lee Myung-bak. And the Pope and an imam. Six pairs of leaders were digitally combined into kisses and turned into huge posters, placed in symbolic locations across five cities around the world. On the web, they also released an app letting people upload their own photo and "kiss" someone. At the same time, they launched the UNHATE Foundation, insisting the campaign was "not just a cosmetic pose."
What happened
The campaign reached 170 countries, generating 3,000 articles and 600 TV reports, and trended on Twitter. It won the Grand Prix in the Press category at Cannes. But business didn't improve. In the months leading up to the campaign, net profit had already dropped 33%, and the slump continued afterward.
Afterthought
The creative work was an overwhelming success. The business wasn't saved. That ironic ending says a lot about who Benetton is as a company — the madness of using advertising to make people think, not to sell. Even if the whole thing was designed with the Pope's poster getting pulled down as part of the plan, I still stand behind this ad. That jolt of "whoa" from the moment it appeared hasn't faded one bit.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2012
