The Benetton Group Case Study

The Benetton Group Case Study

The Controversy Continues Problem Identification Benetton, the world famous clothing producer, once again dives into social issues that the United States may not be ready for. The Italy based group is well known for their shocking world issue advertisements that only bear the company logo. In fact, Benetton’s advertisements traditionally do not feature the clothes it sells; only the issues play the lead role. After years of controversy over ads such as AIDS, war, interracial relationships, and priests kissing nuns, it may be time for Benetton to campaign about something other than controversial social issues, like clothes. On January 1, 2000, Benetton’s new advertising campaign wasn’t about sweaters or pants, but about convicted murderers that are on death row. The “death row” ads feature portraits of American death row inmates in prison uniforms with the slogan “Sentenced to Death”. The ads give the inmate’s name, date of birth, crime, and expected method of execution. Within the campaign, inmates also talk about topics ranging from their childhood to their dreams, everything except their victims. According to CNN, victims’ rights advocates are outraged as well as are the individuals that lost loved ones to the profiled inmates. Once again, Benetton is faced with another controversy that could perhaps worsen their already poor US market share. According to the New York Stock Exchange, where The Benetton Group is publicly traded, it seems that the company has lost over ten dollars per share since their peak of 50 15/16 in January. This decrease could be attributed to many things, but perhaps the most significant was the February announcement that Sears would immediately pull Benetton designed clothes from all 400 of its stores that had been selling the Benetton USA line. The Benetton USA line was specifically designed for Sears when the two companies joined last summer to introduce a new line of juniors, kids, and men’s apparel. Troubled by the campaign, Sears renegotiated its contract with Benetton to gain the right to preview future Benetton ad campaigns. A revised clause in the contract also gave Sears the ability to withdraw from the deal without penalty if the two parties were unable to agree on future campaigns, according to CNN. Regardless of these changes, the controversy was too significant for Sears to ignore due ...

... middle of paper ...

...it could be done by using special warnings). The Benetton does just the opposite: it wants everybody to see it, because this is the only way they can change society (awareness).

The ads may be perceived as psychoactive, and therefore ethically incorrect (e.g. the "Death Row" campaign had enormous negative impact on relatives of the murders' victims).

The problems with the campaign eventually led to the departure of Toscani from the company (after 18 years of collaboration). The parties had claimed that it had nothing to do with the last campaign, but critics took it as Benetton's acknowledgement of wrongdoing. In the summer of 2000, the Benetton advertising practices have changed as well: they turned from using the death row as means of publicity, towards doing shows on fashion runways. Many of the industry observers anticipate that company will convert to more traditional fashion advertising in order to increase its sales. They predict it will help the stock as well (Sloat, 2000). The results of rethinking the advertising philosophy are yet to be seen. Judging by recent developments, the Benetton approach to social responsibility issues have not been entirely successful.