If people won’t share images and stories of your over priced and dull cloths, create fake a foundation and steer up some controversy with Obama kissing Jintao and you’ll have more brand visibility in a day than you could ever had wished for.
Benetton may be more famous for their “shockvertising” than their over priced clothes. Nevertheless, few are we that have missed their latest ad campaign named “Unhate” featuring many of our worlds leaders in doctored kissing positions.
Benetton natrually claims that the purpose and intent of the campaign is to ”exclusively to fight the culture of hate in every form”. Whether the newly setup Unhate Foundation is setting our to change the world for the better or not, I’m not sure. What I’m convinced of though is that Benetton’s agency behind the campaign, Fabrica, really understands the power of causes. Casuses are bigger than brands. Simply.
Four days into the launch of the campaign and every newspaper in the world has covered the story. Subsequently people on social media touched by the cause amplifies the ad campaign.
The controversial ads of world leaders kissing each other are obviously doctored to create visibility for the campaign. People who eventually land on the campaign site are being invited to participate in the campaigns by creating their own kiss-walls, subscribing to the live twitter feed and watch the campaign films.
Whilst the early spike in search is on a down going trend, the campaign makers are now nurturing of the people who have participated in one or and other form.
Here’s a few images of the Benetton Unhate campaign that I took outside the Opera store in Paris earlier this week:
China’s leader Hu Jintao and the US President Barack Obama in an unlikely posture
German Chancellor Angela Merkel with French President Nicholas Sarkozy
Palestina’s Mahmoud Abbas and Israel’s Nethanyahu
