Benetton, Toscani and the Limits of Advertising

I thought this article was interesting because a fact that almost seems to be falsely advertised in the title. The title says "The Limits of Advertising", but what I got from the article was that Toscani danced with the "limits" of advertising and was successful almost every time. I was astounded by the level of success he had by simply shocking consumers in Benetton's new advertising campaigns. The consumers did not appear to be at all concerned with what the advertisement was saying. They were more intrigued by the fact that a fashion advertisement had controversy, which shocked them and stuck in their brain. While there was immediate backlash over each advertisement that was published the anger would soon fade and what consumers were left with was the name Benetton which would then drive them to purchase Benetton products. While there is a lot to be said about the consumer who is not concerned with the issues that the advertisements Benetton may or may not be raising, I am more impressed with Toscani's gumption that aloud him to make such incredible and risky work. Because you would think that, in general, an advertisement would want to appeal to the masses. Which is what Benetton was doing before, they were photographing children, smiling and wearing their clothes, which they thought would be universally adored. But it was not until Toscani started to make images like a black nurse holding a white newborn baby (this was in the 80's) or a man dying of AIDS that Benetton's sales really took off. These advertisements had absolutely nothing to do with fashion and the only thing that related them to Benetton was their logo that was added on, yet their products were flying off the shelves. Benetton avoided taking a side on the issues but still made advertisements that got people talking and that was the perfect formula for success