The man who reinvented advertising returns 17 years later to Benetton armed only with his old Canon and a discourse relentless campaign against the marketing, the fashion and the new fascism
ALBUM: Campaigns more controversial Toscani at Benetton
That Oliviero Toscani fashion cares a whistle not only what he says, they also say their socks. Arrive first thing in the morning limping on two old moccasins black, pants color mustard and white socks of foreigner German in Mallorca. Grey shirt with zipper and glasses-that yeah – pasta brilliant blue. Are from his personal collection and he has them of all colors. Wears her hair short but disheveled, almost white, and the beard unshaven for three or four days. In person it is like a version unembellished of Artur Mas, with that jaw square to the Don Vito.
That Oliviero Toscani advertising will matter even less in that fashion, you already said it without anyone’s help. During the nearly one hour interview, Toscani repeated two words: stupid and shit. In Italian, in English and in Spanish. The same thing you are worth to talk about the new fascism that the old advertising, a discipline that renounces almost enraged despite the fact that his last name is associated to it irretrievably from some 40 years ago. Also to the fashion. And what? Or to photography. As if he was only a photographer…
Who is really Toscani?I am a witness of my time, as a journalist, a sociologist or an anthropologist. Use photography to express and interpret what I see, the world to which I belong and as long as I live. But I am not only a camera (cameraman, he says). The photographers of today are only men with a camera, but that is not enough.
His biography tells us that he was born in Milan 76 years ago, son of the first photojournalist for Corriere Della Sera, and that he studied photography and graphic arts in Zurich. He has worked for Chanel, Fiorucci, Prenatal, or Porsche, and published his portraits in Elle, Vogue, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar or Esquire. In 1982 he came to Benetton, and for 18 years it revolutionized not only the image, identity and communication strategy of the Italian company, but that shook the sector completely. Those were the days in which Toscani boasted of being a “terrorist advertising”.
“Yes. There was a lot of people, especially advertising agencies, criticizing my work. But it gives me the same”, he admits. “I don’t do advertising. I use the space of the advertising to express myself and it works because everyone is very aware of what I do.”
Left with Toscani at the end of the month of June in the spectacular building that Foundation Feltrinelli in Milan to witness the exclusive photo shoot of the campaign that Benetton launches today. Just a few months ago that he returned to the company after 17 years away from the brand and will have more than enough time for liarla. Two days before our appointment, the creative used a photo of others of the refugees from the Aquarius to the one who planted the famous logo green of their company. Criticized him from Matteo Salvini to the NGOS. “I don’t have to justify anything. The same photo was published by many newspapers two days before and nobody saw it. People saw it because I used it myself. I prefer to publish my photos through the possibilities that gives me to Benetton through a horrible newspaper of the ultra-right”.
see Also the NGO accused him of using a human tragedy for commercial purposes.The NGOS do not understand how I can succeed and they do not.Does it generates some ethical problem to use a picture as well?Do you want to solve the problem or we want to talk about ourselves? The other will have an ethical problem, I do not. I use the communication and people understand well what is going on. 30 years ago when I made the first picture of the aids, all the world complained of that. Do you know why? Because they were jealous. All the world understood suddenly that the aids was that.
I don’t do advertising, do not sell anything. I use the space, Benetton to say what I think needs to be said
In 1992, Oliviero Toscani became the photo of a terminally ill patient of aids in the image of Benetton. Deceased, lying dying in a bed surrounded by the weeping of his family. The modern version of The Pieta of michelangelo. Dozens of publications refused to publish the advertisement in their pages, some even left their space blank in protest. A year before, had already shocked the world with the image of a baby covered in blood and still attached to the umbilical cord or with the kiss of a priest and a nun in their billboards, are prohibited in Italy by the pressures of the Vatican. Came then the condoms of colors, the black horse mounting the white, the clothes soaked in the blood of a soldier killed in the Bosnian war, or those portraits of several sentenced to death in the US in which was his last campaign before leaving Benetton in 2000. “I had a feeling I was signing my own death sentence,” joked then Toscani, who is tired after spreading your breakdown of that campaign. “The problem is that Benetton already only wanted to sell t-shirts”.
can You sell clothes and at the same time communicate what you want to communicate?We belong to a global company but we know what is going on in the world. Is it bad to offer our space to that, in place of to top models and all the shit of the fashion as across the world? I don’t understand why it’s bad. Do you have any limit?The limit is intelligence. There are No limits to freedom of expression. It should be a personal limit: the intelligence, the knowledge and the feelings.But there is something I never would use for a campaign?All the world talks of my campaigns, but I don’t do campaigns. That is something of the advertising. It’s shit and doesn’t work for me. I do not sell anything. I use the space generously I cede Benetton to say what I think needs to be said. I am a man of communication. Even if it’s using a tragedy?All the art is based on the tragedy, in the human condition. If not, it is not art. There is a beauty in the tragedy. Is constant, from Goya to Picasso. You can make it credible in the tragedy, or you can do that beauty is terrible, that is what advertising does with a language stupid. I don’t do that. If you’re an idiot, that is fine. But Benetton is not a company idiot as all the companies of the competition. All do the same thing. Pay a model, and the more they use, the more you get paid. It’s really stupid and is what makes the world of advertising. We don’t do that. But Benetton will want to sell clothes, isn’t it?And the sells. But there are different ways to do it. We belong to a market, but we do not enfrento borrow at him stupidly. Is it possible to be free and earn money?Insurance. What we showed at Benetton, and when I went and Luciano Benetton was and the company opted for the marketing and was managed by managers, they failed.
for 18 years, Toscani left Benetton, and less than a year ago that came back as if it had come out a time to by tobacco. Again Toscani to reinvent the brand beyond t-shirts of pastel colors. Again from the hand of Luciano. Two old to the rescue. Tells the photographer that he does not return to any site, who are the others who turned your way. And even less agree that re-domesticated. To these heights the life… “people like To see other people fail you, love. Sorry, but that is not my case. It makes Me laugh to this general frustration, but I’m not going to fall into the trap. I am 76 years old, I am still working and I still believe in what I do.”
I Am a witness of my time. I criticize because they are jealous but I don’t have any ethical problem. I don’t have to justify me. My only limit is your intelligence
The first image that Toscani launched on their return home, in December last year, was a Primary class of a school in Milan, with children of all colors, of the five continents. Now she has recruited six professionals of public services in Italy, all of immigrant origin. A magnet of Togo, a priest of the Congo, a lawyer and a council member of Senegal, a Police officer of Indonesia and a doctor from Cameroon, famous latter from a patient from their outpatient clinic in Lombardy refused to be touched by a black doctor.
In just under an hour, Toscani has portrayed to everyone, together and separately. Without too much clutter. Spare time to pose with them and sign autographs. There are No lights, or reflectors, or tripods. Only Oliviero and his Canon hanging around their neck.
why is it necessary to this campaign?To make them understand that Italy is a civilized country. We now have a political system fascist ultra-right and it is terrible, but we are not a country that discriminates against people, although some pretend to. People are worried because the economy is not experiencing its best moment and then the whole world begins to worry, to be racist, to discriminate. And something we have to do. During the fascism, Primo Levi said that if you don’t react to something that you don’t agree, you’re working with that you hate. You it is 40 years fighting racism. It seems that we have not advanced too much.Racism means fear and renewed. We do not understand that we are not all equal, that we are different and accept that difference. It is the great problem of today. We are concerned about the different people, the changes, the evolution, the future… And it’s a shame because immigration is an incredible wealth. What has become fascism?Fascism no longer comes with black shirts. Today it is different. Salvini is a fascist, a fascist total. In fact, it is worse than the fascists because it has another face because the people did not believe that to be fascist even if it is. And if you say nothing, you are collaborating with them. But the people will vote…Because they are afraid and have hope in that man. The same thing happened with Mussolini. All seasons have ups and downs and now we are down, very down, but we will be back up. I am still optimistic. Why?I’ve always wanted to do what I do. You could give up. I’m fine, don’t need to work more, but I have a real commitment, a social commitment.
Be optimistic does not mean not to see the great tragedy that we live in. We’re going to have to go through a lot of shit still, but at the end we will win
last summer Toscani joined the Democratic Party, “his fourth marriage, and has not ceased to criticize harshly to the vice president and minister of the Interior Italian, Matteo Salvini, with whom he has crossed all sorts of insults in public. The finest that Toscani has told Salvini is that it is “a fart” (scoreggia, in Italian).
what you End up standing for elections?No, No, please. I think I can make more doing what I do. My work is my political action. What do you think is the populism?It is a stupid way to make policy. Is not understand that there is a future. Populism is the past and the present but not going beyond. It is very conservative. Watch the Brexit, is a mistake. Europe is waiting for us, it is a choice not a destination. You don’t chose to be Spanish, I did not choose to be Italian, but we can choose to be european. It is a project but we cannot do it because there are populist idiots and nationalists. I have a lot of hopes pinned on Spain. Despite what of Catalonia?I don’t see any problem in Catalonia. You can’t move Catalonia where it is attached to Spain. Where will they go? How To Miami? Is there going to be exiled to Florida? The problem is always nationalism. Do you spend any campaign to Donald Trump?It is too ugly for that. Trump is a big joke. Someone who was born a millionaire, what kind of vision of the world can have? It is totally stupid, a complete idiot. And what about a Salvini?Either. Salvini is a small Trump of provinces. Less evil that was you optimistic…Being optimistic does not mean not to see the great tragedy that we live in. We’re going to have to go through a lot of shit yet, but, look, I was born in 1942 to 20 meters from here, under the bombs of England, in a country fascist, monarchist and allied with the nazis. Went to school very close and a day playing among the ruins I saw how it exploded a couple of friends tinkering with a few grenades. I would say that today we are better… We are slightly more civilized, despite Salvini, Berlusconi and all of this shit out of fascists. Sure there will be more and probably Salvini will be only a small piece of crap compared to the great shit that we have to face, but in the end we will win. Insurance.
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