Oliviero Toscani, photographer of Benetton’s shock advertisements, has died at 82

(Reuters) – Oliviero Toscani, the man behind the shocking advertising campaigns for Italian clothing brand Benetton, died on Monday at the age of 82, his family announced in a statement.

Oliviero Toscani was admitted to Cecina hospital in the Tuscany region on Friday in serious condition. In August, he revealed that he suffered from amyloidosis, an incurable disease, and had lost 40 kg in one year.

Oliviero Toscani made his name in the 1980s as creative director for Benetton.

The photographer had built his reputation on provocation with advertising campaigns featuring a man dying of AIDS or the bloodied clothes of a soldier killed in Bosnia, sparking controversies which helped to popularize the “United Colors of Benetton” logo. .

The photographer left Benetton in 2000 following the controversy caused by a campaign presenting images of American prisoners on death row.

“I use clothing to raise social issues,” Oliviero Toscani said in an interview with Reuters at the time, as controversy mounted over his campaign.

He returned to his work for Benetton in 2017 to try to restore the brand, which had been damaged by competition from “fast fashion”. Benetton finally ended their collaboration three years later, following comments from Oliviero Toscani minimizing the importance of the disaster of the collapse of the Morandi bridge in 2018, which left 43 dead.

The bridge was at the time managed by a subsidiary of the Atlantia infrastructure group, controlled by the Benetton family.

(Written by Keith Weir, with contributions from Silvia Ognibene and Alvise Armellini, French version Elena Smirnova, edited by Blandine Hénault)