home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ TIME: Almanac 1993 / TIME Almanac 1993.iso / time / 120489 / 12048900.010 < prev    next >
Encoding:
Text File  |  1992-09-23  |  931 b   |  18 lines

  1.                                                                                 BUSINESS, Page 69Business NotesADVERTISINGPicture Imperfect?
  2.  
  3.  
  4.     The image is arresting, perhaps too much so: a white hand
  5. and a black hand, both denim-clad and handcuffed together at
  6. the wrists. For Italy's Benetton, the ubiquitous purveyor of
  7. knitwear, the photo seemed ideal for its long-running ad
  8. campaign stressing harmony among the races. Ironically, the
  9. giant retailer now finds itself accused of racism. "Handcuffs
  10. do not convey brotherhood," says Donald Polk, president of the
  11. New York Urban League, which has been flooded with complaints
  12. about the ad from those who feel it depicts a black man under
  13. arrest. Says Vittorio Rava, Benetton's worldwide advertising
  14. head: "We thought of the campaign as anti-racist." Benetton's
  15. next series of ads will retain the racial-harmony theme but,
  16. says Rava, will be "sweeter."
  17.  
  18.