Benetton takes up Kosovo plight

Italian knitwear giant Benetton has begun a global advertising campaign for victims of the war in Kosovo. The newspaper ad was devised by the company's creative director, Mr Oliviero Toscani, and features a bloodstain on a white field. It was created on foot of a request from the Italian government and is in support of the work of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees - whose logo and address for donations appear in the copy.

The campaign's time-scale is impressive. Benetton's communication division was approached to do a campaign early last week. Seven days later the colour ad began appearing in newspapers in Britain and United States. It will appear in the Irish media in early May.

Mr Toscani's images for Benetton are always controversial and have ranged from a bloody new-born baby to an AIDS patient on his deathbed. For this campaign, the Italian photographer used the same stark, attention-grabbing approach, while at the same time being highly critical of the advertising industry's response to the war.

"The only form of communication that doesn't seem to notice that we are at war is advertising," says Mr Toscani. "This mark will stain the pages of our newspapers alongside advertising that wishes to gloss over and wipe such images from our consciences."

Benetton has a track record of using its strong global brand awareness to support a cause. In 1994, Mr Toscani's photograph of the bloodstained clothes of a dead soldier who died during the Bosnian war proved controversial, as did the company's anti-Gulf War ad, which featured an image of a row of crosses in a cemetery.