OLIVIERO TOSCANI, a creative genius, may not be very vividly remembered now, but his work remains iconic and will never be forgotten. From his perspective, he was more of a photographer and less of an adman. His advertising was the stuff of legend. It was intensely loved, deeply reviled, diligently studied and poorly copied.
Toscani’s disturbing images for several Benetton campaigns buzzed up the advertising circle in the nineties. His work created polar opinions, and he made the fractures of race, religion and inequality look like the giant canyons they truly were. He single-handedly created ‘shock advertising’.
A priest kissing a nun, a smeared newborn baby with his umbilical cord intact or a dying AIDS patient surrounded by family was a commentary on society more than advertising apparel.
It made Benetton a brand known across the world. It also made other advertising seem so plain and boring— odourless, colourless and tasteless, if we may say so.
Toscani was born in Milan in 1942. He studied photography and graphic design at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zürich, graduating in 1965.
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