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From the very beginning Toscani had always been the mastermind behind the controversial campaigns of United Colours of Benetton. When in 2000, Toscani left the company, the advertising of Benetton was taken over by Fabrica, a communications research centre, established by Toscani himself. Today, Fabrica is still the creative mind behind the Benetton campaigns. Despite this change, the company’s mission statement remained the same. Benetton portrayed their mission statement by using recent topics, pathos and a certain tone.
United Colours of Benetton conveys their mission statement by making use of recent topics. From 2000 onwards, they made many campaigns concerning topics such as violence, poverty, racism, peace, equality and a new subject environment. Nowadays, we are still coping with some of the problems of the 80’s and 90’s, however new problems have arose as well. For example, the campaign in 2004 called ”James and the other apes”. The advertisement shows a close up portrait of a monkey called James. This campaign was created to raise awareness for the protection of the great apes that are endangered. Benetton was one of the founders of campaigns concerning the environment. This subject had not been introduced before, so therefore it really was a newly talked about problem of those days. Also the “unemployee of the year” campaign from 2012 is a very good example of an advertisement with a recent topic. Because at the time, the world was dealing with the financial crisis, there were a lot of people and especially young people, who could not find a job. The message of the campaign, to spread a positive message of hope and celebrate young people’s capacities to create new ways of addressing the unemployment problem, was really meant for the public around that time. The company is still famous for its campaigns on recent topics in order to spread their mission statement.
The company uses pathos to portray their mission statement. Benetton makes clever use of the relation between the images and topics in their campaigns. This can be noticed in the “Food for life” campaign from 2003. It shows a black man with a mutilated arm with a metal prosthesis with a spoon on the end. This already appeals to people’s emotions and the fact that you can clearly see the ribs of the man enhances this feeling of guilt and sorry. Benetton’s mission statement was to show how food is a very important aspect in someone’s life and that it is necessary to gain peace and positive future prospects. The idea that many people were becoming aware of the fact that people were dying of hunger provided the western public with a feeling of being fortunate.
''.Despite the change, the company's mission statement remained the same''
''.The brand uses tone to convey the message of their mission statement ''
Also the “Colours of domestic violence “campaign from 2007 is an example that appeals to the audience’s emotion. The photo depicts a coloured woman who has clear marks of violence inflicted on her face. She is looking really serious and looks straight in the camera. This is really effective, because it looks like the woman is actually looking at you. By directly addressing the public, we are left with a feeling of responsibility and of feeling sorry. Benetton wanted to get attention for all the violence against women in the world. The connection with the woman in the campaign makes the audience actually feel something for her and create an opinion. Therefore pathos still influenced the companies mission statement.
The brand uses tone to convey the message of their mission statement. From 2000 onwards the tone kept being controversial, however at another level. It was not so much the photos of the campaigns that caught people’s attention, but the background information provided with the campaigns. For example the “ Sentenced to death” campaign from 2000. The campaign features a portrait of a black man with the text “Sentenced to death” underneath it. When adding the fact that the man is an actual prisoner who has been sentenced to death, this makes the tone even more harsh and controversial. The mission statement of this campaign was to show the people the reality of capital punishment. The harsh tone really contributes to the underlying message of the advertisement. Another example with a strong tone is the “Visions of Hope” campaign published in 2002. This was a year after the first attack on the World Trade Centre and Benetton’s goal was to give people hope in these hard times. In the picture we can see young girl with her eyes closed. This represents that she is really imagining good things will happen. This makes the tone motivating and hopeful. The message of the campaign is strengthened by the image. The tone of the advertisements around this time explicitly contributes to Benetton’s mission statement.
To conclude, United Colours of Benetton conveys their philosophy by using recent topics, pathos and tone. From 2000 onwards the topics of campaigns kept being up to date with recent issues, which contributed to the strength of their mission statement. Also, the important use of pathos influenced the company’s philosophy in a positive way. The tone of the campaigns is still controversial, however with a soft edge. It contributes to the effectiveness of their mission statement.