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| Chinese Premier Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama "kissing each other" at the latest Benetton ad. |
Italian clothing company United Colors of Benetton called “Unhate” featuring world leaders including US President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Hu Jintao who are "kissing each other".
The images are digitally manipulated but they send a pointed message. The newly unveiled UNHATE Foundation seeks to promote a culture of tolerance and combat hatred around the world, the company said in a news release.
The campaign was launched today in Paris.
“Unhate is a message that invites us to consider that hate and love are not as far away from each other as we think,” the campaign’s website said.
“Actually, the two opposing sentiments are often in a delicate and unstable balance. Our campaign promotes a shift in the balance: don’t hate, Unhate.”
The website features photos of people holding large banners of the images “on the walls of locations symbolic of the desperately-needed peace process: Tel Aviv, New York, Rome, Milan and Paris,” the news release says.
The ads have already become a source of controversy especially when the Vatican reacted, disapproving the pope's inclusion in the ad campaign. Benetton removed the image shortly thereafter and it is no longer on the website.
The company is known for its striking, and often controversial, ads. Past ads have shown a priest kissing a nun, a white baby breast-feeding from a black woman and three human hearts with the words “white,” “black” and “yellow” printed over them.
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| US President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez |
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| Pope Benedict XVI and Egyptian Imam Ahmed el-Tayyeb |
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| German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy |
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| Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu |
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| North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak |
With reports from Yahoo
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