意大利廣告惡搞領導人接吻宣揚和平
意大利服裝品牌“貝納通”近期在巴黎公佈了一系列主題爲“擯棄仇恨”的廣告，讓互有矛盾的各國領導人通過影像合成的方式接吻，以宣揚寬容與和平。這些合成的照片包括奧巴馬與查韋斯、阿巴斯與內塔尼亞胡、默克爾與薩科奇等對立國的領導人。在該廣告活動的網站聲明表示，擯棄仇恨這個理念讓我們意識到，愛和恨之間的距離其實沒有我們想象的那麼遙遠，這二者總是處於一種不穩定的平衡狀態；而此次廣告活動就是要對這種平衡狀態進行調整：拋棄仇恨。
At first, the images are shocking. President Obama planting a kiss on his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Abbas embracing Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Angela Merkel smooches French President Nicolas Sarkozy, her nation’s economic rival.
These images aren’t the latest political scandal. They’re a new ad campaign from Italian clothing company United Colors of Benetton called “Unhate.”
The images are digitally manipulated but they send a pointed message. The newly unveiled UNHATE Foundation seeks to promote a culture of tolerance and combat hatred around the world, the company said in a news release.
The campaign was launched in Paris.
“Unhate is a message that invites us to consider that hate and love are not as far away from each other as we think,” the campaign’s website said. “Actually, the two opposing sentiments are often in a delicate and unstable balance. Our campaign promotes a shift in the balance: don’t hate, Unhate.”
The website features photos of people holding large banners of the images “on the walls of locations symbolic of the desperately-needed peace process: Tel Aviv, New York, Rome, Milan and Paris,” the news release says.
The ads have already become a source of controversy.
After the images went up, the Vatican quickly denounced an image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing Egyptian Imam Ahmed el Tayyeb on the lips.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi called the digitally altered image an “unacceptable” and offensive manipulation of the pope’s likeness, according to the Associated Press.
Benetton removed the image shortly thereafter and it is no longer on the website, but the Vatican is taking legal action against the company in an attempt to prevent the image from circulating, according to the Associated Press.
Benetton is known for its striking, and often controversial, ads. Past ads have shown a priest kissing a nun, a white baby breast-feeding from a black woman and three human hearts with the words “white,” “black” and “yellow” printed over them.
