My Thoughts On "AIDS and Advertising"

A wise person once said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what words would come up when you see a picture of a man dying of AIDS surrounded by three grieving individuals appears in, of all things, a clothing ad. Better yet, what does this picture represent and why is it in a clothing advertisement when it has nothing to do with their clothing and the profits are not going towards AIDS research? Are they intentionally fooling consumers into buying their clothing, thinking that it is for a good cause? Alternatively, maybe the intended meaning goes beyond what meets the eye and Benetton (the clothing company responsible for the ad) wants its audience to decipher its meaning. These are a few thoughts I came with in looking at the following picture that appeared in a popular Benetton ad. Although I do not know the answers to these questions entirely, here are my thoughts on it.

In examining the picture, I immediately notice something; Benetton is using controversy to make their ads eye catching. Who wants to look at a boring ad, whether it is for clothing or anything else? They know exactly what they are doing when it comes to how they market the ads that they put out. They picked the perfect picture in the aspect of grabbing one’s attention. However, the purpose or the reason why they chose the picture is not so easy to find out. On one hand, I saw the ad as a plea for sympathy and a way to trick consumers into thinking that the profits were going towards something dealing with AIDS. It makes me wonder weather or not if the AIDS patient bearing a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ is a as an example of how they are banking upon the audience’s emotion or if it is just a coincidence. I see this picture as a scheme to make people think that the people in the picture are wearing their clothes and to show that Benetton is worn by any and everybody. On the other hand, I see the ad as an idea to try to prove how relevant they are regardless of what is going on in the picture. They could be implying that they are as important as the AIDS epidemic itself, which is inconsiderate if that is the case. It also could be an effort to try to be ‘hip" to certain world issues in a creative way; differentiating themselves from their competition.

In short, I believe that it does appeal to consumers, but I think that it appeals more to a specific consumer instead of consumers as a whole. With an ad like this one, the consumer point-of-view is the key in weather the ad is appealing or not. For example, it would appeal more to the family member of someone who has AIDS since they make think that Benetton cares about the cause. All and all, the picture and ad as a whole is a tad obscure and by using a picture of someone with AIDS enclosed around visibly upset people is misleading. Nevertheless, its effectiveness relies on the the mystery of its purpose.