Where diesel was more tongue in cheek for the fashionably alternative crowd, Benetton had their tongue firmly in the cheek of major social issues, especially those of race. From the 80s when America was still in the grips of crazed right wind fundimentalists like Ronald Reagan and South Africa in the grips of Apartheid. Companies like Benetton were planting their flags well to the left. Pushing their business to not only support but be branded by concepts that were plaguing the world at the time.
In the 90s Benetton dived deeper into the idea of identity, constantly drawing on concepts that would make one question the social stereotypes people cast upon each other and constantly trying to subconsciously draw people together. They more and more tried to give graphically jarring imagery that would shock people. They were less trying to portray a brand than to portray a movement of togetherness, which I'm sure helped their brand quite nicely.
In the 2000s they even got into a bit of trouble with their above advertising campaign that depicted people on death row. Well they say there is nothing like bad publicity so you can say their brand reached a sort of apex when they tried to humanize Death Row inmates. This is really the best example of Benetton advertising philosophy. Part of you can see that the is something unethical about it yet because of that the adverts cause you to somehow question your own ethics and societies need to demonize certain aspects of itself. And thats Benetton, pushing buttons, bounderies what we think we think about ourselves and selling some cloths to pay the bills.
