SALON

Craig Offman

Tuesday, May 2, 2000 4:00 PM UTC

Benetton says ciao to Toscani

The Italian fashion company outgrows its longtime creative genius.

By

Topics:

Benetton SPA announced that it has severed an 18-year relationship with advertising guru and photographer Oliviero Toscani. “It was by mutual agreement,” said Mark Major, the company’s U.S. spokesman.

In a statement issued last Saturday — muted in its praise — the Treviso, Italy, clothing company saluted Toscani “for his fundamental contribution to a new advertising concept.” It also stated that Fabrica, the creative think tank once headed by Toscani and affiliated with Benetton, would take over as the company’s main communications arm. Fabrica produces Benetton’s in-house magazine, Colors, and has produced many of Benetton’s most controversial campaigns, including the recent anti-death penalty series, “We, On Death Row.”

Benetton and Toscani, who is creative director at Talk magazine, have picked an indelicate time to announce the departure. The $20 million campaign, which ended in March, depicted convicted killers in their prison garb without mentioning their victims. The ads precipitated a civil suit from the state of Missouri and the loss of a major client, Sears, Roebuck and Co. The California State Assembly called for a boycott of Benetton products.

Despite the contentious campaign, Benetton denies that Toscani’s departure is related to the “Death Row” ads. “We’ve known that Mr. Toscani was looking for an opportunity to do something different,” Major said. Indeed, a friend said that Toscani has been discussing a move and wants his teenage children to grow up in the United States. The source also observed that Toscani would have had a difficult time with Fabrica in its revamped role. “Toscani is his own person and anyone will recognize that he walks to his own drum.”

Toscani could not be reached for comment, although he said in the Benetton announcement, “[I]t’s good to have the courage to end something that has been fantastic and still have the enthusiasm to take on new projects.”

Earlier this year, Toscani described his relationship to founder Luciano Benetton in papal proportions. “Can you imagine Michelangelo doing a church without the pope? Doing a painting in the Sistine Chapel without putting in Christ.”

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
122 points123 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
111 points112 points | 10 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
67 points68 points | 15 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
67 points68 points | 72 comments
vote
Journalists file suit against Manning trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
59 points60 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations