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