culture of tolerance was represented with the parti-
cular of the passage of a witness: a white man passes
it to a black one.
Perhaps the most disturbing campaign appeared
in January 2000, dealing with the topic of capital
punishment in the United States. Thirty American
death row inmates were featured in Benetton’s com-
mercial catalogue with the tag over their heads:
Sentenced to Death. This was the last advertisement
Toscani created for the Benetton Company.
The real novelty in the advertising strategy of
Toscani–Benetton was to publicize a brand without
speaking about the product, which has become
increasingly common and is often called ‘‘lifestyle
advertising.’’ In Benetton’s case, however, the life-
style they portrayed was one not so much of form,
that which would be achieved by wearing the right
clothes, but content: only those with the proper
attitude were fashionable people.
The photographs of Toscani did not need exhibi-
tions or museums in order to become known, as
they have been hanging worldwide on the walls, so
to speak, of cities for years. In 1993 Toscani was
invited to the 45th Biennale of Venice, the premier
international exhibition of contemporary art. In
1995, Chantal Michetti organized an exhibition of
Toscani’s most famous ads at the Mue ́se d’art Con-
temporain in Lausanne. In the same year, an exhi-
bition, Toscani al muro, that covered the most
important Benetton campaigns, made a world
tour, appearing in Brussels, Belgium; Salamanca,
Spain; Mexico City, Mexico; Sao Paulo, Brazil;
and Santiago, Chile.
The Benetton campaigns won Toscani many
awards, including the ‘‘Grand Prix d’Affichage,’’
the UNESCO Grand Prix, and the Art Directors
Club of New York’s Management Medal. He won
four ‘‘Lion d’Or’’ at the Cannes Festival for tele-
vision spots.
With the continuing support of Benetton, Tos-
cani has been directing, since 1992, the internation-
ally distributed magazineColors, a monthly review
of social topics from all over the world. Each issue
deals with a single topic, developed through the
different voices and opinions of the people photo-
graphed and interviewed in the streets.
Since the end of his partnership with Benetton,
from 1993 to 2000, Toscani directedFabrica,an
international center for research in the arts of
modern communication, realizing a new center of
research for modern communication, which in-
cluded the creation of a web site. From his home in
Tuscany, Italy, he collaborates withEllemagazine
and works as a creative consultant at Talk Miramax
in New York.
RobertaRusso
Seealso:Fashion Photography; Ethics and Photo-
graphyBiography
Born in Milan, Italy, 28 February 1942. Attended photo-
graphy and graphic courses at Kunstgewerbeschule in
Zurich. Fashion photographer for the international fash-
ion magazinesElle,Vogue,Lei,G.Q., andHarpers’s
Bazaar.Inventor of famous advertising campaigns for
the fashion industry: Jesus Jeans, Prenatal, Valentino,
Esprit, and Fiorucci. Creative force for the Benetton
advertising campaigns, 1982–2000. Creative director of
the magazineColors, 1991–2000. Director of the center
of research on visual communication ‘‘Fabrica,’’ 1993–- Creative consultant at Talk Miramax in New
York, fashion photographer for Elle. Grand Prix
Unesco, 1986; Lion d’or at Cannes Festival, 1989; Lion
d’or at Cannes Festival, 1991; Art Directors Club of
Berlin, 1991; Art Directors Club of Italy, 1991; Grand
Prix d’Affichage, 1992; Tokyo Art Director’s Club,
1994; Art Directors Club Award U.S.A.; Lion d’or at
Cannes Festival, 1996. Living in Tuscany, Italy.
Individual Exhibitions
Advertising & Social Issues: United Colors of Benetton;
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia Col-
lege, Chicago, Illinois
Profile Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1993 Museum of Modern Art; Tel Aviv, Israel
Rote Fabrick-Shedhalle; Zurich, Switzerland
City Art Center; Oklahoma
Irish Museum of Modern Art; Dublin, Ireland
1994 Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery; Columbus Centre, Tor-
onto, CanadaTokyo Corporate Art Museum; Tokyo,
Japan
HDLU Museum; Zagreb, CroatiaGalerie Graff;
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
1995 Benetton par Toscani; Muse`e d’Art Contemporain;
Lausanne, Switzerland
Toscani al muro; Palacio de San Boal, University of
Salamanca, Spain, and traveled to Museo de Arte Mod-
erno, Mexico City, Mexico; Centro Cultural Estacio`n
Mapocho, Santiago, Chile; Bienal de Sa ̃o Paulo, Brazil-
Feriye Katabas; Istanbul, Turkey
Oliviero Toscani Billboards: 15 Years of Communica-
tion for United Colors of Benetton; Kunstmuseet Tra-
pholt, Kolding, Denmark
1997 Stazione Leopolda; Florence, Italy
1998 Oliviero Toscani: 15 Years of Images for United Colors
of Benetton; Queensland Arts Council, Brisbane, Austra-
lia, and traveling
Oksnehallen; Copenhagen, Denmark
Centro Cultural Recoleta; Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bonnefantenmuseum; Maastricht, Netherlands
Le Meridien Grand Pacific; Tokyo, Japan
Nagaragawa Convention Center; Gifu, JapanTOSCANI, OLIVIERO