COLOURFUL clothing company Benetton, infamous for outrageous advertising as well as lime-green tank tops, has run into trouble again with its latest promotional campaign. The poster of three enormous hearts labelled "white, black, yellow", arguably one of Benetton's less offensive public offerings, was nevertheless bound to offend.
This time it's the association of Italian blood transfusion recipients who claim that this "crude imagery" intensifies fears of receiving organs from donors of a different race.
Benetton's creative director Oliviero Toscani has refused to clarify whether the hearts were human or animal. "A heart is a heart", he declared, joking that "these are the hearts of my three wives". Catch the offending poster at a Dart station near you!
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