Benetton Shock Ad Pioneer Slams Italian Firm's Latest Effort

The photographer who pioneered Benetton's scandal-generating style of advertising slammed the clothing firm's latest campaign depicting a fake image of the Pope kissing an Islamic cleric.

"There's no creativity, style or poetry. Pathetic," Oliviero Toscani told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Friday. "It looks like the product of a beginner's art class."

Benetton this week pulled the image after the Vatican threatened legal action. The White House condemned other doctored pictures that made U.S. President Barack Obama appear to be smooching Chinese President Hu Jintao and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

The advertisements carried the word: "Unhate."

Toscani, who left Benetton about a decade ago, was the creator of some of the company's most controversial campaigns, including a 1991 depiction of a nun kissing a priest, photos of a dying AIDS victim in 1992 and a condemned US prisoner in 2000.

Several of the Italian photographer's advertisements were banned in Italy, including one featuring two men kissing.

"I don't understand the message, only that it's vulgar," Toscani added of Benetton's latest effort.

Benetton's retraction of the Pope image was not enough to calm the Vatican, which remained furious.

Toscani said the "unhate" publicity campaign had a good intention but the means by which it was carried out were "silly".