Oliviero Toscani

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Toscani, Oliviero (b. 1942), Italian photographer and art director, trained at the Dada- and Bauhaus-influenced Zurich Design School, and friendly with contemporary culture heroes like Andy Warhol and Federico Fellini. He entered advertising in 1973 with a provocative campaign for Jesus Jeans, but achieved fame and notoriety during a long association (1984-2000) with the Italian clothing firm Benetton. Abandoning the bland pseudo-realism of conventional advertising photography, he used his own and others' photographs to flout taboos associated with race, war, sex, religion, death, and bodily functions (vide his book Cacas, 1998). He chose Thérèse Frare's pietà-like image of a young American, David Kirby, dying of AIDS for Benetton's 1992 campaign. His increasingly strained relationship with Benetton was finally ended by images of Missouri death-row prisoners that allegedly cost the company a major contract with Sears. Toscani, who has described himself as a ‘total anarchist’, has been vilified and acclaimed in roughly equal measure, and his motivation variously attributed to moral fervour, exhibitionism, or cynical calculation. But his iconoclastic approach has probably been effective in reaching youthful, affluent consumers in an increasingly global market place.

— Robin Lenman

Bibliography

Salvemini, L. P., Benetton-Toscani: storia di un avventura 1984-2000 (2002)

Oliviero Toscani

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)

Oliviero Toscani (born 1942) is an Italian photographer,^[1] best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton,^[2] from 1982 to 2000. Most of those advertising campaigns were actually institutionals for the brand, always composed of rather controversial photography, usually with only the company logo "United Colors of Benetton" as caption.

One of his most famous campaigns included a photo (by Therese Frare) of David Kirby dying of AIDS, lying in a Columbus, Ohio, hospital bed, surrounded by his grieving relatives. That picture was controversial due to its similarity to a pietà painting and because some^[who?] thought the use of this image to sell clothing was exploiting the victim, though the Kirby family stated that they authorized the use and that it helped increase AIDS awareness.

Other advertisements included allusions to racism (notably one with three almost identical human hearts, which were actually pig hearts, with the words 'white', 'black', and 'yellow' as captions), war, religion and even capital punishment.^[3]

In the early 1990s, Toscani co-founded the magazine Colors (also owned by Benetton) with American graphic designer Tibor Kalman. With the tagline "a magazine about the rest of the world", Colors built on the multiculturalism prevalent at that time and in Benetton's ad campaigns, while remaining editorially independent from Benetton.

In 2005, five years after his resignation from Benetton following the controversy surrounding the death row campaign, he sparked controversy again with his photographs for an advertising campaign for the men's clothing brand 'Ra-Re'. Their portrayals of men participating in homosexual behaviour angered groups such as the Catholic parents' association Movimento Italiano Genitori, who called the pictures 'vulgar'. The campaign came amidst ongoing debate in Italy about gay rights.

Oliviero Toscani unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for parliament for the new Rose in the Fist party in the Italian general election held on 9 and 10 April 2006.

In September 2007, a new campaign against anorexia was again controversial due to his shocking photography of an emaciated woman (Isabelle Caro).

He is creating with La Regione Toscana a new research facility for modern communication called 'La Sterpia'.

References

^ Current Biography Yearbook 1999‎ Elizabeth A. Schick – 1998– Page 571
^ Prayer‎ Graeme Garrett, Oliviero Toscani – 2000
^ Usborne, David (2000-04-02). "Benetton death row ads outrage America". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/benetton-death-row-ads-outrage-america-719129.html. Retrieved 2011-01-26.

External links

(Italian) Official website
OT Horses: American Quarter Horses Oliviero Toscani
Interview with Oliviero Toscani
The True Colors of Oliviero Toscani from AdAge International
Oliviero Toscani from made-in-Italy.com (in Italian)
Oliviero Toscani at Salon
colorsmagazine.com
ANOREXIA. Storia di un'immagine IMDB
ANOREXIA. STORIA DI UN'IMMAGINE official info
The Photo That Brought AIDS Home – slideshow by Life magazine

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Name	Toscani, Oliviero
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Date of birth	1942
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