Benetton’s “Unhate” Compaign Draws Critics From Vatican
High Profile Smooches
Benetton clothing company went on with its „fighting culture of hate” campaign presenting Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas locking lips in a picture, following two similar issuances in which other personalities of the world public life were doing the same thing.
The most notorious, which triggered criticism from Vatican was the doctored image in which the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Benedict XVI was kissing the Muslim Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb of Cairo, Egypt. (Vatican expressed at the beginning of the year its concern over the Muslim violence toward Christian communities in Egypt.)
The image caused Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi to denounce this „manipulative” use of pope’s picture in a montage he called „totally unacceptable.” Vatican announced they may take action against Benetton.
Lombardi lashed out at the idea of imagining Pope in such a position by saying that it was a disrespect for the pope and an insult to the sentiments of the faithful in the Roman Catholic Church, who respect and revere the pope. He added that the display of such pictures shows how far a company would be eager to go in the name of publicity.
Benetton had to remove on Wednesday a huge banner posted near Vatican with the pope’s image on it. The company apologized for the inconvenience, and said that its goal was to fight against hatred.
In a statement the company apologized for the fact that this idea might have hurt the feelings of the faithful of the Catholic church.
Benetton is part of the Unhate Fundation and in this capacity they announced that they had other such „couples” of political leaders, one of the most famous being that made of the President of the United States kissing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. In other pictures, Obama kisses Chinese president Hu Jintao.
In other pictures, Northern Korean President Kim Jong-il kisses South Korean president counterpart Lee Myung-bak.
One of the pictures that is not fitting neither the unhate idea nor the unusual same-sex kiss that can be traced in other pictures is the one presenting French President Nicolas Sarkozy kissing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
France and Germany have no cause to be considered enemies and do not need „unhate” campaign, since the two leaders are inseparable in all moments that decide the fate of the European continent. Is it possible for Benetton to want to tell us something else in this particular picture?
Except for the European leaders’ smooch, all the others seem to promote a gay agenda all over the world, and at least were viewed as such, although the company insisted on the unhate part.
