Toscani created the company's United Colors campaigns. Almost everything he does for Benetton creates a furor. But nothing compares in audacity to the death-row campaign. No Benetton clothing is on display. The ads are there to denounce the death penalty and arouse compassion for the inmates waiting to die.
Any serial killer is an amateur compared to state of Texas.
Toscani says he feels sympathy for the families of murdered victims and doesn't doubt the guilt of death row inmates. But in Benetton's catalog of killers, Toscani and his team never asked the inmates why they killed, or if they'd kill again. Nor do they offer any details of the crimes committed. And the ads do not explain that Jerome Mallett killed a state highway officer in Missouri. But they do hear Mallett bemoan the fact that he's going to die.