A Penn State professor has deconstructed the advertising strategy of the Benetton clothing chain. In "Colonial Discourse and the Politics of Colorful Sweaters: Benetton's 'World Without Borders,' " Henry A. Giroux argues that the company's statements concerning its social conscience (typified in its advertising by startling images of a nun kissing a priest on the lips, colored condoms floating through the air, a bloody baby still attached to an umbilical cord, and a man dying of AIDS) represent a shrewd, carefully planned advertising ploy. "The moral high ground that Benetton wants to occupy appears to be nothing less than an extension of market research," writes Giroux. "Popular culture becomes the pedagogical vehicle through which Benetton addresses the everyday concerns of youth while... blurring the lines between popular cultures of resistance and commercialization." Behind Benetton's radical face, Giroux comments, is a company that provides few benefits and little job security and thwarts employee efforts to unionize. The ostensible "rejection of commercialism, nothing-is-sacred attitude depoliticizes the images. It suggests they are concerned with social responsibility when they are concerned with making money," says Giroux.

[Ed.: A 1997 edition of Benetton's magazine Colors features a new twist in its unique ad campaign: graphic pictures of road kill, grossly misshapen creatures like a five-legged cow and a "Chernobyl pig," and feces of various animals.]

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