CoP- Study Task 4

The connotations of this image are that the white child appears angelic and the black child is shown as a devil as you can see from the horns of the child’s hairstyle.  With this particular advertisement Oliveiro Toscani wanted to show the racial barrier that still appears today in many different cultures and societies. The advertisement was seen in the year of 1991. At first we see the denotation which is two children happily hugging each other.  Clearly the racial stereotype of black people is that they’re bad whereas the Arian white child is shown in a much more positive light almost angelic. The advertiser was trying to bring this point across to basically show the masses of how blatant racism actually is.

The denotations for this images is that the image shows two children hugging each other. One is looking happy whereas one child is looking sad.

Through looking at the image deeper we can see that Oliviero is trying to raise a point with this United Colours of Benetton advert rather than be racist. I find this advertisement interesting, as at the time it would have sparked debates on whether this advertisement should be banned due to the controversial topic lying behind it as well as it being so blatant.

What i'm arguing with this particular image is the fact that people don't like seeing things that are classed as controversial and they prefer seeing images for perfume adverts, or pictures of dogs or advertisements that sell you something. Noone likes to address controversial topics as they're afraid to speak their own mind so they just mask that and follow everyone else's opinions. What else I find from this image is the fact that racism still exists and more so around the time of the advertisement and people didn't like it even though racism still happens everyday. 

At first glance it is two children hugging but when you focus more you see there is a meaning to it, as you can see the black child has devil horns whereas the white child looks angelic. This is more to prove a point and show people that racism is as blatant as this advertisement.