http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAp9BKosZXs&feature=kp (Play this video whilst reading the post, and replace the word ‘Girl’ with various world leaders names)
Be honest with yourself..
We’ve all dreamt about locking lips with Obama and shoving the First Lady down the stairs of the oval office at one point in our lives. And now you can experience that vicariously through the tense, politically dry lips of some of the worlds most powerful idiots Leaders.
And that is exactly what The United Colors of Benetton, a well known Italian clothing company with an already established history of controversial advertisements has done in their 2011 add campaign that has caused quite a stir across the globe. Men and women worldwide are now in uproar over the fact that they are not allowed to kiss Obama. Ok thats not the real reason people are upset about this. The real reason is obvious.
Now the images have clearly not been tampered with and the leaders must have been paid handsomely to partake in such an act, and its strange, i always saw Barack as more of a Putin man.. huh, you think you know somebody…. Now, the clearly photoshopped images sparked the debate to wether or not the company have crossed the line with their advertisements. The images Obviously have gone for the ‘shock value’ over anything else, and it has worked. According to the company’s homepage, They started “Unhate” foundation in order “to contribute to the creation of a new culture against hate”. The company’s goal is to promote love and tolerance around the globe.
You can have a closer look at their homepage here – http://www.kissingpresidents/LOLcom.
Sorry. The Updated web address is – http://unhate.benetton.com
But the underlying question beneath all of this is have the obviously questionable and unethical images actually acomplished the companys objective? I believe that the images have gone above and beyond the companies goals and due to the world-wide notoriety they acoplished, they well and truly achieved the recognition they wanted, regardless of their message being correctly portrayed. Any publicity is good publicity right?
I think by far the most shocking image is this one .
The image of the Pope Benedict XVI kissing Muslim imam Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb of Egypt. The Vatican actually made a statement immediately after the advert was released saying “This is obviously fake as Pope Benedict tilts his head to the right when he kisses other men” Ok, they didn’t say that, but they did say this “It shows a serious lack of respect for the Pope”
Now i actually think the images are a great way to draw attention to the companies message, although being disrespectful in many aspects, they did what any good shock advert does, shocks people. And really, i think the real issue here is, where on earth was Vladimir Putin? I bet he would be ‘putin’ his lips all over Obama if he had the chance!
MC
WhichMitch 