• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 3, 2012

United Colors of Benetton -- which recently generated plenty of buzz for its campaign showing the likes of President Barack Obama locking lips with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas smooching Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- is at it again. In the latest installment of its Unhate campaign, the Italian clothing brand has headed to war-ravaged Tripoli, working with Libyan university students to fashion an elaborate dove, crafted from 22,000 shell casings.

The Unhate Dove, unveiled on Christmas Eve, is also featured in a special issue of the company’s occasionally controversial Colors magazine, as well as on its blog and Web sites. (Dec. 24 is Libyan Independence Day, celebrated for the first time in 42 years.) The sculpture was created by Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research center, based near Venice.

The company describes it as “one of the first monuments to peace after the Arab Spring, which began in Tunisia in December 2010.”

It’s also the initial act of symbolism from the Unhate Foundation, which the company started back in November. “The official handing-over of the dove is the Unhate Foundation’s first act, both concrete and symbolic,” says Alessandro Benetton, Benetton Group’s executive deputy chairman, in a statement. “Our aim in creating the Foundation is to oppose the culture of hate. It seeks to be a leader and driving force behind the desire for participation and change felt by citizens of the world, especially young people.”

The shells, collected by the magazine from tension areas around the globe, were then mounted on the sculpture by students at the University of Tripoli, where it is installed.

The company also made “war waste” the theme of WITH LOVE, a special issue of Colors, focused on stories of “imprisoned lives,” including the 50 journalists working for Shabelle Media Network, an independent radio station of Mogadishu, Somalia; an Egyptian blogger killed in a demonstration in October, and Gaetano, an Italian businessman from Calabria, Italy, living under police protection for his work helping to convict mobsters.

The company kicked off the first phase of its project back in mid-November, with ads themed around a kiss running in newspapers, periodicals and Web sites around the world. In addition to those featuring Obama and Netanyahu, it had also planned a version with Pope Benedict XVI kissing Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, but pulled it after the Vatican threatened legal action.

In its most recent results, the company posted revenue of €1,481 million in the first nine months of 2011, down 0.5% from the same period in the prior year. (It trimmed its advertising and promotion spending for the period to €42 million, from €44 the prior year.)