Italian fashion giant Benetton has relaunched in South Africa. The clothes are fine, but it?s the ad campaign that should really be welcomed back, writes Charl Blignaut
A picture of the pope picking his nose with the headline ?I flick my snot at you?. A gold toilet seat: ?The rich have to marry someone ? so why not you??
?Transformation?: A male crotch tightly bound in common or kitchen cling wrap in anticipation of a frock. A black woman breastfeeding a newborn white baby. The united colours, faces and gear of Benetton returned to our marketplace this week.
At the launch of the flagship Hyde Park store in Johannesburg, Dikran Alexanian, MD of Benetton Egypt, said that the company is back to stay (they?d had some stores a decade ago and closed after five years). That means that the Benetton philosophy is also back in play: a hi-tech weave of business acumen, affordable fashion and radical marketing.
Benetton likes to think big. From cottage beginnings in 1965, the Italian company today has 7 000 boutiques in 120 countries. Their North African agenda has been spearheaded by Egypt, where they established 55 stores within a decade. They will be doing much the same from the other end of the continent; 50-odd stores in South Africa within three years, spreading northward to Mozambique and Botswana. That?s about 20 stores a year in a developing economy.
As for the fashion, well, it?s still plain, but an infinite improvement on what filled the old local Benetton stores, plus the company recently added a sportswear division and have bought the likes of Rollerblade.
But Benetton is the world?s third most recognised brand after Coca Cola and MacDonalds and they didn?t do it on T- shirts. The trick is in the marketing ? selling plain clothes with big ideas. The trick?s name is Oliviero Toscani and ten years ago his method was considered radical.
At the height of Benetton?s fresh face (no clothes) and politico shock campaigns, Toscani, head of the Benetton campaign, was a god in the advertising firmament. He had proven that a company?s ?public image can transcend its commercial reality?. But people grow tired of shock and Benetton steadily began picking up its critics.
Still, the company continued to increase profits each year and in the past two years Toscani has revealed he had an ace or two up his sleeve. One of them is Fabrica, an avant-garde art school cum ad agency just outside Treviso in Italy. Surrounded by vineyards and petrol stations, Fabrica was started in 1995. It offers 22 students under 25 a year in Italy with the finest facilities their field has to offer, from film to music to design. Three South Africans were in its first batch of students and Fabrica is where Toscani has an office.
Toscani said at the media launch: ?I am not asked by Benetton to sell clothes. The communication is a product in itself.? He has proved his point with a trump card; Benetton?s Colors magazine. This has been moved to Fabrica and Toscani?s gathering of brilliant kids use it as an outlet while Benetton uses it as a showcase.
Toscani is proud of Fabrica, after all, ?Coke doesn?t have an art school? and tries to allow students free creative space. Of course, there?s a catch. Some students say they feel like they?re just working for an ad agency, not like they?re at school. Even Toscani doesn?t know quite what Fabrica will become. What Toscani knows is that kids like to shock, so he co-opted the kids. It?s all actually a lot like Andy Warhol?s early New York pop art factories. And, like it or not, Warhol changed the art world.