On Friday, the Vatican announced it will be taking legal action against Benetton after the company displayed a fake photo of the pope kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips, and Benetton ceded.

Protesting the use of US President, Barack Obama, White House spokesman, Eric Schultz said, "The White House has a long-standing policy disapproving of the use of the president's name and likeness for commercial purposes."

However, despite the White House's protest, on Saturday, Benetton went ahead with its "Unhate" campaign and used an image of President Obama smooching his Chinese opposite number Hu Jintao, publishing the image in Italy's biggest daily, the Corriere della Sera.

La Repubblica, Italy's other main daily paper, published a double page spread showing eurozone strongmen Nicolas Sarkzoy and Angela Merkel puckering up.

The White House jealously guards Obama's image and objected last year when a garment company transformed a picture of him, in what appeared to be one its winter coats during a trip to China, into a billboard overlooking Times Square in New York. The advert was subsequently taken down.

Schultz declined to say if the White House would contact Benetton directly to express its objections.

Alberto Fusignani, CEO and founder of creative agency Independent Ideas, said the campaign was "a gratuitous speculation" on the part of Benetton and its think-tank Fabrica.

They "crossed the limit, so much so that the campaign becomes banal. They touched a predictable element in a calculated way to create buzz, but it lacks spontaneity. They knew the effect these photos would have and this is not correct, it's an abuse of power somehow. To be provocative for the sake of it is not rewarding, even if you and I are talking about this right now."

This kind of communication "makes no sense at this moment and it's not contemporary, nor is it creative. These are merely montages," Fusignani said.

Sources

• WWD
• Vancouver Sun
• Christian Science Monitor
• Image: Christian Science Monitor

The "Unhate" campaign, sponsored by the Benetton clothing company, was aimed at fostering tolerance and 'global love.'

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi denounced the ad as 'false', and an 'unacceptable provocation.'

"It shows a grave lack of respect for the pope," Lombardi said in a statement.

Lombardi described the image as "an offence 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."

He said the Vatican was studying measures to protect the pontiff's image.

Catholic Communications Auckland spokesperson, Lyndsay Freer said "Benetton seems to be living on another planet if they think that images of world leaders in homosexual kissing might be viewed as "constructive provocation" that will promote tolerance and global love."

"An oxymoron if ever there was one."

"To depict the pontiff and an iman in such a way is an outrage not only against the person of Pope Benedict and Christianity, but also against Islam," she said.

The photo of the pope kissing Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb of Cairo's al-Azhar institute, the pre-eminent theological school of Sunni Islam, had been on Benetton's website all day but was pulled about an hour after the Vatican's protest.

Al-Azhar suspended interfaith talks with the Vatican earlier this year after Benedict called for greater protections for Egypt's minority Christians.

The campaign's fake photos feature a half-dozen purported political nemeses in lip-locked embraces, including

• President Barack Obama and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Benetton said the photos of political and religious leaders kissing 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."

Benetton's shock-ad approach is almost a cliché as it has become part of the company's brand.

The Washington Post reports the company's sales have been lagging and speculates that the ad might just be a way of jolting consumers into remembering the Benetton name.

Benetton has previously used images of inmates on death-row and people dying of AIDS as part of its advertising strategy.

Sources

• Benetton Press Area
• CBS News
• Washington Post
• Image: Daily Mirror