Life Imitates Ad

This is unarguably the most intriguing thing I’ve seen in advertising.

A bit of context, firstly. Sometime in 2011, the fashion brand, Beneton, released series of images that depict religious and political leaders, kissing each other. Expectedly, the images were considered provocative. But my advertising bias (or deviance bias 😏) viewed them as symbol of reconciliation and tolerance. Of course, I acknowledge how the campaign stirs up the topic of (ir)responsible advertising. But then, there’s also the counter topic on why every tax-paying entity has the right to engage in topics of social or public interest.

I remember CNN interviewing the Benetton guys. And the threats of boycotts. The Vatican condemned the campaign. But they stirred conversations around a fundamental global issue of “Love”. Is the world really ready and willing to love? The brand decides to use this question to provoke thoughts and represent this by portraying the extreme of unlikely intimacies. (At the time, Obama and Hu Jintao were in a diplomatic row. If the campaign were to be reprised in 2019, it would feature Trump vs. Hillary, Buhari vs. Saraki, Tuface vs. Blackface).

But life couldn’t wait. It simulates the ad in real life. The pope visits the United Arab Emirates and meets the Grand Imam, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. The theme of the encounter is about Tolerance and there’s no greater way to show this than to witness the leaders of the two most powerful and most contentious religions, in a holy kiss. Let’s ignore that there was actually no mouth-to-mouth in the real life version, but the angle of the photograph is so uncanny one wonders if God and Allah aren’t having the last laugh).

The Benetton representation is fascinating as it is daring. The world tends to be politically correct and frowns at that which pokes at conservative sensibilities. The recent hoopla around the Gillette ad is a case in point. The ad pokes at hostile masculinity (or patriarchy, if you may) and there was a backlash. At home, Yemi Alade depicts herself in a music video where she is costumed in the cultural attires of Nigerian traditional leaders and the Nigerian internet nearly went after her neck. The comments range from why it is an abomination for a woman to portray herself in a traditional male-ruler role, to how she insults the represented cultures. Let’s state the underlying truth. The main problem, really, is that Yemi Alade hurts patriarchal sensibilities in a culture that isn’t familiar (and unfashionable) for women to be seen or elevated to a certain pedestal. The comments were not really a defense of culture. They mostly, I can argue, stemmed from a veiled attempt to protect the male ego and patriarchal entitlement.

I wonder how the guys at Benetton are feeling right now. There PR department are probably currently busy.

Life imitates commercial arts, indeed.