• by Karl Greenberg , March 12, 2008

Besides product focused ads, Benetton Group runs yearly global ad campaigns that blend branding, photojournalism, and social activism. They--as much as the clothes--have made the company famous, if controversial, in the clothing business.

Efforts like 1993's AIDS and Safe Sex campaign, and 2000's We on Death Row weren't Benetton's first such efforts, but they set the tone for the company's efforts to spotlight inequity, poverty, global health and its own efforts to improve things.

The Treviso, Italy-based company's work continues with this year's campaign to promote the Birima micro-credit program in Senegal, a co-operative credit society founded by Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. Birima, N'Dour's co-operative credit society, offers financial services for craftspeople, professionals and artists to help them start and independently develop their business.

The outdoor and print campaign, via Fabrica, Benetton's design research center, bears the slogan "Africa Works." It began rolling out worldwide last month. In the U.S., efforts include multi-page spreads in Vanity Fair, Marie Claire and Interview.

The ads' creative centers on full-color photos by photographer James Mollison of Senegalese workers who have used micro loans to start small businesses: A fisherman, a decorator, a musician, a jewelry-maker, a farmer, a tailor, two textile sellers and a boxer are featured.

In addition to traditional ads, the campaign will include point-of-purchase materials. There will also be projects and events, such as a Colors special supplement on credit and ethical finance around the world; and a cartoon that will run solely in the Senegalese community and on other African TV channels. Benetton is also developing a Web site devoted to the campaign--also via Fabrica--that has information on the effort, on the microfinance organization and events, birima.org.

The campaign focuses on the idea that a single person can change society, a theme the company says it has promulgated in a number of campaigns since 2001's Volunteers in Color for United Nations Volunteers for the International Year of Volunteers, and in 2003 in the Food for Life campaign with the World Food Program.

Anissa Nouhi, senior fashion spokesperson at the company, says Benetton is launching a separate product-focused print effort in U.S. fashion magazines. "The product campaign is totally focused on collections and products. There's not real correlation between the two," she says. "We have always had two kinds of advertising campaigns: the more socially aware, the ones we did with the UN, and more product-focused ads."

The company has 6,000 stores worldwide, per Nouhi. "Since the '80s, we realized the power we have from a communications perspective. It's not about our trying to get something out of it; it's a commitment the company has towards certain organizations that should have more exposure."