意大利广告恶搞领导人接吻宣扬和平

意大利服装品牌“贝纳通”近期在巴黎公布了一系列主题为“摈弃仇恨”的广告，让互有矛盾的各国领导人通过影像合成的方式接吻，以宣扬宽容与和平。这些合成的照片包括奥巴马与查韦斯、阿巴斯与内塔尼亚胡、默克尔与萨科奇等对立国的领导人。在该广告活动的网站声明表示，摈弃仇恨这个理念让我们意识到，爱和恨之间的距离其实没有我们想象的那么遥远，这二者总是处于一种不稳定的平衡状态；而此次广告活动就是要对这种平衡状态进行调整：抛弃仇恨。

At first, the images are shocking. President Obama planting a kiss on his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Abbas embracing Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Angela Merkel smooches French President Nicolas Sarkozy, her nation’s economic rival.

These images aren’t the latest political scandal. They’re a new ad campaign from Italian clothing company United Colors of Benetton called “Unhate.”

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 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.

After the images went up, the Vatican quickly denounced an image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing Egyptian Imam Ahmed el Tayyeb on the lips.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi called the digitally altered image an “unacceptable” and offensive manipulation of the pope’s likeness, according to the Associated Press.

Benetton removed the image shortly thereafter and it is no longer on the website, but the Vatican is taking legal action against the company in an attempt to prevent the image from circulating, according to the Associated Press.

Benetton 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.