Benetton clothing company has recently launched a new ad campaign, showing doctored photos of world leaders in conflict locking lips, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Italian clothing firm withdrew one of its ads on Wednesday, which used an image of Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the mouth, after the Vatican protested.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi called the unauthorized and "manipulative" use of the pope's picture in the photo montage totally unacceptable and suggested it might take legal action against the company. Father Lombardi said in a statement: "This is a grave lack of respect for the pope, an offense against the sentiments of the faithful and a clear example of how advertising can violate elementary rules of respect for people in order to attract attention through provocation,".
A large banner with the image of the pope and the imam was hung from a bridge near the Vatican on Wednesday morning but later removed.
Benetton said the purpose of its campaign was "exclusively to fight the culture of hate in every form" but said it had nonetheless decided to withdraw the image and that they were "sorry that the use of an image of the pontiff and the imam should have offended the sensibilities of the faithful in this way,".
Other photo montages in the same campaign, in which Benetton says it supports the Unhate Foundation, show other world leaders kissing each other on the mouth.
U.S. President Barack Obama is shown kissing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in one.
The Italian clothing company has run controversial advertising campaigns in the past, including one that showed grieving parents at the bedside of a man dying of AIDS.
Benetton has been forced to pull an advert featuring a picture of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips.
The image showed the pontiff kissing Sheik Ahmed el Tayeb, an imam from Cairo's al Azhar institute - a theological school of Sunni Islam.
Al Azhar suspended interfaith talks with the Vatican earlier this year after Pope Benedict called for greater protections for Egypt's minority Christians.
The picture of the pair was posted on the clothing company's website and posters featuring the kiss were briefly displayed in Milan, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv and Rome.
It was among various pictures of political opponents kissing created for Benetton's campaign, titled "Unhate".
They included Barack Obama and Venezualan leader Hugo Chavez, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.
The company said the adverts were aimed at fostering tolerance and "global love" but it prompted a quick reaction from the Vatican.
Spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi called the picture an "unacceptable" manipulation of the Pope's likeness and said it offended the religious sentiments of the faithful.
"It shows a serious lack of respect for the Pope," he said, and he warned that the Vatican was studying measures to protect the pontiff's image.
Shock adverts have long been part of the Benetton's publicity strategy, with previous campaigns featuring death row inmates and people dying of aids.
The company said the images were "symbolic images of reconciliation - with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation - to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation".
In a statement following the Vatican's complaint, it apologised and said: "We have decided with immediate effect to withdraw this image from every publication."
http://www.mix4m.com/2011/11/benetton-clothing-company-has-recently.html
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