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Benetton’s: “We On Death Row” Campaign
Michael Grissett & Guillaume Sarthou
December 8, 2000
Advertising & Promotion Management
Ms. Ellen P. Daniels
Table Of Contents
Introduction
I.
Summary of Benetton’s “We On Death Row” advertising Campaign
II.
SWOT analysis of Benetton
III.
Advertising Recommendations for Benetton
IV.
Focus Group Summary
V.
Executive Summary
VI.
Conclusion
VII.
Appendix
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Introduction
The company that we have chosen to examine is Benetton. Benetton is not only a
family started company, but also a unique global group. They combine both a know-how
in textile-clothing and a strong identity and image of some of the worlds leading brands
(Playlife, Nordica, Prince, Rollerblade, and killer Loop). Benetton manufactures clothing,
sports equipment, footwear, bags, and accessories. They offer clothing for men, women
and children. Their clothing line is manufactured and distributed out of Treviso, Italy and
include both casual and sportswear. They produce over 100 million garments annually at
one of the most technically advanced industrial complexes in the world (Castrette). Their
overall turnover before retailing reaches roughly 187.2 million a year in retail sales. Due
to the company’s success, profits per share have risen over the past five years, and this
has enabled them to implement a clear-cut policy of distributing dividends to
shareholders. Benetton is present in over 120 countries, and they have around 7,000 retail
outlets. (appendix 1)
The “United Color of Benetton” advertising campaigns began in 1984. Benetton’s
advertising has not only been a means for communication but also an expression of our
time, characterizing universal themes. They have created universal impacting ads that
have succeeded in attracting the attention of the public and in standing out amid the
current clutter of images (appendix 12). Some of the topics they have dealt with include
AIDS, racism, child labor, war, and the environment (appendix 4). While Benetton’s
campaigns have gained awards and acclaim in all the countries in which the Group is
present, they have also aroused strong reactions. The reactions range from the ferocious
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to curiosity. Benetton’s ads have generated their own media frenzy in both America and
Europe. Through television networks and thousands of articles in newspapers and
magazines they have always been the focal point of discussion and of confrontational
ideas. (appendix 1)
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I. The Summary of Their Advertising Campaign
The same holds true for their current advertising campaign (appendix 10 & 11).
This campaign uses 26 convicted killers (who together are responsible for 46 murders
(appendix 2)) and awaiting execution. The campaign began in January 2000, and is titled
“We, On Death Row.” It reveals the real faces of the prisoners in the advertisements.
“Whether they are young or old, white or black, arrogant or anguished, fat or thin,
remorseful or unrepentant, smiling or sad, healthy or ill, they are all guilty in the eyes of
human law.”
The man behind the advertisements is Oliviero Toscani. Toscani worked for two
years to do portraits of the death row inmates, in which he visited death rows in several
American prisons. The advertisements are for print and billboards (execution), and
constitute the dramatic visual images for Benetton’s new advertising campaign and their
Spring-Summer 2000 worldwide communication campaign. The ads will appear on
billboards in Europe, America, and Asia. The ads appeared in magazines such as Talk,
Vanity Fair, and Tina Brown’s Magazine. The images are also available over the Internet
on Benetton’s website (Benneton.com). (appendix 1)
Benetton has targeted the age groups of 18 to 45 with these advertisements or
anyone that may have an opinion about the death penalty. Benetton’s strategy for this
campaign was to increase brand awareness and increase interest about this social issue.
Benetton wants the focus of the campaign to be on the death penalty itself and not on the
specific inmates. Benetton hopes that you will leave aside any social, political, judicial or
moral considerations. They believe the focus of the ads is to show the public the reality of
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capital punishment, so that no one around the world will consider the death penalty
neither as a distant problem nor as just news. Toscani hopes that these images will give
back a human face to the prisoners on death row, and remind everyone that thinks that
they are so sure they are right, that the debate concerns men and women in flesh and
blood. (appendix 1)
While Benetton is use to controversy and discussion of its ads in the press and
among the public, their new campaign is receiving even more controversy. They are
being attacked by the families of the victims, victims’ advocacy groups, Sears, and the
state of Missouri (appendix 3). These groups are not only upset about the actual
advertisements, but also a 100-page supplement that was released (appendix 5). In the
100-page supplement (that Benetton released and packaged in February with
international Talk magazine) there is no mention of any of the crimes that the death row
inmates committed. One journalist calls the interviews fan-magazine puff pieces. The
interviews consist of a variety of other questions such as, “Did you ever want to travel,”
and “Who are your favorite boxers?” (appendix 2) Benetton also released that they paid
seven inmates $1,000 dollars each for appearing in the ads. Benetton said that European
law forced the company to compensate anyone pictured in an advertisement (appendix 3).
The families of the victims and many victim advocacy groups are outraged and
accusing Benetton of “taking convicted killers and romanticizing them while ignoring the
suffering of the victims and their survivors”, and “using the killers to sell sweaters at their
expense.” The groups and the families of the victims have a great deal to say about the
travesty Benetton has committed in their eyes (appendix 6). They are also calling for a
boycott on all Benetton products. (appendix 2)
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Sears, Roebuck & Company ended a contract with Benetton in February. It was
due to threats for a boycott, threats of a grant withdraw for 13 million, and the outrage of
Sears chairman Arthur C. Martinez. Martinez has decided to ban the new Benetton USA
clothing line. The contract signed in 1998 was for multiple-years, and carried Benetton
products in their 400 stores. The reason the contract was signed was because Benetton
was not doing well in America. Sears also said that the advertising campaign was
inconsistent with what Sears has come to represent and is inconsistent with the customer
base they serve. The loss of Sears contract to Benetton is estimated at around 100 million
dollars (appendix 9). Since then Benetton has offered Sears the power to review and
approve any future adds, but Sears still declined the renewal of the contract. (appendix 8)
Missouri filed a lawsuit against Benetton February 9th. They are suing Benetton
for one count of fraudulent misrepresentation, one count of trespass by deceit and one
count of trespass by exceeding the scope of consent. Benetton did all this by cutting
through the red tape in order to photograph and interview the inmates (four of which are
in Missouri). Benetton lied to officials and said they were from Newsweek, and that they
were sponsored by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Benetton
kept the details about the campaign project hidden. (appendix 3)
There are also a number of Benetton hate sites that give you the real low down on
what these death-row inmates did. One such site goes through ten pages describing the
horrific crimes the inmates have committed. They do not pull any punches when it comes
to giving you the facts and not fluff (unlike Benetton). Due to all the negative backlash
of their death row campaign it is obvious that it was not effective in achieving their goals.
(appendix 7)
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II. The SWOT analysis
Strengths:

Benetton Group is a world leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of
distinctive casual apparel for men, women, and children.

Benetton is well known around the world; it has a good image and a good
reputation through the 120 countries they are selling in. The Group's commercial
network of 7,000 retail outlets around the world is increasingly focused on large
floor-space mega stores offering high quality customer services.

Benetton is traditionally known for knitwear and casual clothing in a wide array
of colors, featuring fashionable Italian design and projecting a youthful image.

Benetton clothes are high quality products usually made of wool.

Benetton is active in the sportswear and sports equipment sector with brands such
as Prince, Rollerblade, Nordica, Kästle, Killer Loop and Ektelon.

Benetton licenses its trademarks for products manufactured and sold by others,
including fragrances and cosmetics, watches, sunglasses and other fashion
accessories, which complement its product lines.

After competing for more than 10 years in the Formula One championship,
Benetton decided to pull out in March of a sport now dominated by the large car
manufacturers. Benetton had entered the costly Formula One sport to promote its
clothes in the world market. But it felt the costs of competing in Formula One
were no longer justified in terms of the marketing value for the group. Benetton
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made a net gain of $82.4 million that represents a 147 percent rise in first-half net
profits.

Benetton has its own communication research and development center: Fabrica.
It has a pluralistic view on things that is guaranteed by the mix of young people
from countries with different languages, cultures, and attitudes. They work on
projects that include fashion, interiors, industrial design, and cinema.

Colors is a bimonthly magazine that talks to young people all around the world,
and is in 50 countries. They have seven editions published in eight languages, and
a Internet site that has won a record number of hits and critical acclaim.
Weaknesses:

Because of its controversial way to advertise, Benetton retailers may terminate
their contract anytime because they don’t want to lose customers.

In the United States, Benetton is only retailed by Sears who is not very well know
for the quality of its products, so people associate Benetton with low quality
products.

In Europe, Benetton products are expensive which gives opportunities to many
competitors who provide lower prices for the same quality.

Benetton, as it’s spread all over the world, doesn’t have a new geographical
market to get in, except the United States.
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Opportunities:

Benetton does not have a lot of market shares in the United States, so it can
improve its position in that market.

As Benetton is diversifying, it allows the company to compete on several markets
and it makes Benetton less sensitive in regards of the fluctuating economy.
Threats:

The clothing market is getting saturated and the competition is getting tougher
and tougher (GAP, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hillfiger, Calvin Klein,
Nautica, Abercrombie…).
Benetton with that campaign claims to fight the death penalty using its reputation
to make people think about that issue. They’re not promoting any product, they just
want people to talk about the death penalty but they also want people to think that
Benetton is a brand that speaks its mind (as they put the United Colors of Benetton
logo on the ads) instead of focusing on selling there product. They are actually
focusing on one of their strength: In the world market they are world-known and
people know about Benetton’s social involvement.
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III. Advertising Recommendations for Benetton
The best thing for Benetton to do is to stop using the death row advertisements in
the United States altogether. The ads could still be used in Europe since their past and
current campaigns have for the most part been successful, but they need to create more
product-based ads for the American market. The purpose of their ads is to create brand
awareness, but they have not any much success at that in the U.S. The problem is that no
one knows what they are selling, especially when the only advertisements they produce
have nothing to do with their products.
Benetton should start by choosing television commercials and magazine print ads
to get their name not only recognized, but also an understanding of what products and
services they offer as a company. They should target the 16-35 age group for starters.
They can do this by advertising during shows like Friends, Dawson’s Creek, and on
stations like MTV and NBC. The magazines they should look at to place print ads in are:
Maxium, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Details.
Their message should be product focused. They should stress Italian quality and
show the kind of clothes or product they want consumers to buy. This will allow their
brand to be recognized and for people to associate clothing and accessories with Benetton
rather than just simply wondering what is it they are trying to sell.
The best way to execute this new campaign is to target a set age group, find out
what is culturally acceptable or expected from the competition and the design
advertisements to spark curiosity and interest in their products. The goal is to take as
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many consumers and their money away from the competition as possible and increase
awareness of their global brand name and product offered.
If Benetton would like to make a social impact or fight what they view as
injustices in other countries (like the death penalty), they should donate to nonprofit
organizations or find a more acceptable and/or creative way of supporting their beliefs.
This way they are not throwing all their eggs in one basket. They would not be risking
consumers for political views.
The campaign will be better if Benetton stuck to product advertising and not
social and political advertising. It would enable Benetton to be recognized in America as
a competitor with Gap, and not some group that is anti-death penalty. The best way to
evaluate these recommendations is to simply look at what else works in the American
market. Look at the companies that would be and are Benetton’s competition and see
what they are doing. It must work if they are doing so well in this market. Another way to
prove this would work is from the information received from the focus groups. Ninety
percent of Americans agreed that Benetton should show their product in the ads, and 75
percent said they should not continue this type of advertising (death row ads). The best
way for Benetton to make sure such ads would work is to test out the idea with their own
focus groups in the U.S. (appendix 14)
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IV. Survey/Focus group
We asked 10 questions to 40 students (20 Americans and 20 Europeans) what
they think about Benetton’s Death Row Campaign. We first showed them 2 of the 6
different ads (appendix 10 & 11) and then asked the 10 questions. (appendix 13)
What we learned from the survey is that more than 60% of the Americans do not know
Benetton whereas 100% of the Europeans know about the brand; 17 Americans out of 20
think the ads are bad and 15 Europeans think they are good. A majority of Americans
think the ads are not good for the product when 12 Europeans think they are. Only 5
Americans would buy Benetton’s products after those ads whereas 11 Europeans would.
18 Americans think Benetton should stop doing this type of advertising and half of the
Europeans surveyed think the same way. (appendix 14)
Obviously, Europeans are aware of Benetton’s products and they know what
Benetton is doing as far as advertising is concerned, on the other hand, Americans do not
know much about the company, its products and its political involvement. 12 Americans
think the ads should be more product-based and 4 think they should be less political.
So we think Benetton should advertise differently in those 2 parts of the world
where customs and believes are different and where the level of awareness of Benetton is
different: they should promote their products when dealing with the American market and
do what they are doing right now in Europe but they’d better do focus groups or surveys
to have an idea of how the customer is going to react to those new ads because you can
lose a lot of customers who can boycott your products when you’re doing controversial
advertising, and once you lost them, it’s very difficult to gain them back.
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We also asked the people we surveyed how they would change the campaign, and
they basically said that Benetton should come with new advertisements based on their
products like Gap and Old Navy, but they should also come with commercials during
shows like Friends, Dawson’s Creek, MTV, and not only printed ads with should appear
in fashion or trendy magazines such as Maxium, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, GQ,
Seventeen. Some of those people also said that they really like their anti-racism ads and
that anti-racism should be the main topic of their ads because almost everybody agrees on
that subject, it’s not controversial anymore.
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V. Executive Summary
Benetton is a unique global group present in 120 countries around the world. It
operates in the clothing sector with the well established United Colors of Benetton and
Sisley brands, and in the sportswear and equipment sector through the leading brands,
Playlife, Nordica, Prince, Rollerblade and Killer Loop. The Group's commercial network
of 7,000 retail outlets around the world is increasingly focused on large floor-space mega
stores offering high quality customer services and now generates an annual turnover of
more than $187.2 million, net of retail sales.
Through their universal impact, Benetton ads have succeeded in attracting the
attention of the public and in standing out amid the current clutter of images. Benetton
campaigns have gathered awards and acclaim in all the countries in which the Group is
present; by the same token, they have aroused strong reactions - at times ferocious, at
times simply curious because of the controversy involved in some of its latest ads.
Benetton new campaign is about the death penalty, it features people sentenced to
death. The campaign appeared on billboards and on the pages of the major news
publications in Europe, America and Asia in January 2000.
As the topic of the campaign was very controversial, people didn’t really like the
campaign and especially the Americans: the State of Missouri sued Benetton for one
count of fraudulent misrepresentation, one count of trespass by deceit and one count of
trespass by exceeding the scope of consent, Sears (the only Benetton retailer in the US)
ended their contract with Benetton in February which represents a loss of 100 million
dollars.
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We surveyed 20 Americans and 20 Europeans, asking them questions about
Benetton and the campaign, and the Americans didn’t like the campaign at all while the
Europeans are more moderate. One of the factors that influenced their opinion is that all
the Europeans knew about Benetton before the survey whereas only 40 percent of the
Americans had heard about it before. As those people suggested, we think Benetton
should build brand awareness in the US by promoting their products and their brand,
prior to do that kind of controversial advertising and they should base their advertising on
the anti-racism theme, which is a less controversial topic.
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VI. Conclusion
Obviously, Benetton Death Row campaign was a disaster in the US: Sears
terminated their contract with them, the State of Missouri law suit, the victims’ families
boycotting Benetton, etc. So Benetton did not build brand awareness (which was one of
the purposes of the campaign) because no one knows who they are, and what the
company is selling. The print ad looks like a Public Service Announcement paid for by
and anti-death penalty organization and not a clothing company.
Benetton has explain the purpose of their apologize for the ads. This still has hurt
their company tremendously. They have since dismissed Oliviero Toscani, the creator of
the ads. He was released after 18 years with Benetton. This sends a sign that Benetton is
getting ready to change their advertising and hopefully position themselves better in the
American market.
It would be nice if we are on the mark with our remade ad, but as long as they
stick to what works in the market they wish to enter and compete in, the have to adapt
their advertising some to fit the country they wish to sell to. No more of the universal ads
that cross all country lines and cultures. Unless they pick a subject that is not so
controversial in the country they are placing the ads into. We feel that their best bet is to
stay away from the political and social arena, and focus on their products in their ads.
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VII. Appendix
1)
http://Benetton.com/wwa/benettongroup/benetton/index.html
2)
Levin, Ellen. Benetton Gets in Bed with Killers, February 3, 2000.
http://intelectualcapital.com/issue/issue343/item8114.asp
3)
Leptinsky, Andrea. Missouri Sues Over Death-Row Chic: Benetton, an Italian
company is the target of a suit because of its recent advertising campaign,
February 18, 2000. http://www.themaneater.com/2000/02/18/news/death.html
4)
Fashion Ads Feature Condemned Inmates: ‘Sentenced to Death’ Billboards to
Appear Worldwide, January 8, 2000.
http://www.apbnews.com/cjsystem/justicenews/2000/01/08/benetton0108_01.
html
5)
“WE ON DEATH ROW”, United Colors of Benetton 100-page supplement,
January 2000 (included).
6)
Chen, Hans H. Death Row Fashion Ads Spark Outrage: Survivors Say
Inmates Humanized at Victims’ Expense, January 10, 2000.
http://www.apbnews.com/cjsystem/findingjustice/2000/01/10/ads0110_01.ht
ml
7)
Benetton – Killer Ads: Sears has removed all Benetton products from their
stores!!! http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Benetton.htm
8)
Sears pulls Benetton contract after death row ad flap, February 16, 2000.
http://www.courttv.com/national/2000/0217/benetton_ap.html
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9)
Leptinsky, Andrea. Sears Pulls Benetton from Racks, February 25, 2000.
http://www.themaneater.com/2000/02/25/news/death.html
10)
“Sentenced to Death” Benetton advertisement James Edward Thomas
11)
“Sentenced to Death” Benetton advertisement Bobby Lee Harris
12)
32 Examples of past Benetton advertisements on AIDS, war, racism, the
environment, etc.
13)
Focus group questionnaire about Benetton and its current (10 questions) ad
campaign.
14)
Summary of focus group survey results.
15)
Remade advertisement for Benetton in print (more product based)
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