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Text File  |  1990-09-19  |  846b  |  15 lines
  1. BUSINESS, Page 69Business NotesADVERTISINGPicture Imperfect?
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  4.     The image is arresting, perhaps too much so: a white hand and
  5. a black hand, both denim-clad and handcuffed together at the
  6. wrists. For Italy's Benetton, the ubiquitous purveyor of knitwear,
  7. the photo seemed ideal for its long-running ad campaign stressing
  8. harmony among the races. Ironically, the giant retailer now finds
  9. itself accused of racism. "Handcuffs do not convey brotherhood,"
  10. says Donald Polk, president of the New York Urban League, which has
  11. been flooded with complaints about the ad from those who feel it
  12. depicts a black man under arrest. Says Vittorio Rava, Benetton's
  13. worldwide advertising head: "We thought of the campaign as
  14. anti-racist." Benetton's next series of ads will retain the
  15. racial-harmony theme but, says Rava, will be "sweeter."