| ||||
|
Arts & Entertainment Books Comics Health & Body Media Mothers Who Think News  PeoplePolitics2000 Technology - Free Software Project Travel & Food  Columnists - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - Current Click here to read the latest stories from the wires. - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - Also Today For a full list of today's Salon People stories, go to the
People home page. - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon - - - - - - - - - - - - Recently in Salon People Nothing Personal Nothing Personal Nothing Personal People Feature People Feature - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
The colorful dissenter of Benetton | page 1, 2, 3, 4
Oh, yeah. They have to be, financially, economically. I think it is the only way we can have a reasonable society. Otherwise it will be the Wild West. You can't, for example, exploit child labor because you want to buy your shoes for $10 all your life and you don't know or care where they're made, and at the same time give to charity -- to Amnesty International or to some starving children's foundation in the Far East. I think this way of being should be over. We should buy our shoes for $25, and instead of buying three pairs we buy one pair -- better made, more consciously made. The problem is not to produce more and to consume more, but to produce better and consume better. For example, I have too many shirts! I have enough shirts for three lives! You must have a lot of nice sweaters, too. Yeah, enough for three lives. But why?! Most people aren't aware of the scope of social programs Benetton has sponsored in conjunction with your campaigns. The AIDS work with ACT UP, the clothing redistribution project, the work with anti-apartheid groups in South Africa ... Yeah, but saying that makes everybody feel so comfortable. I hate to make advertising by saying that it goes to charity. Those companies that say "we gave a million dollars to such-and-such a charity ..." Bullshit! You shouldn't even pronounce that. I'm so angry at those people who make advertising about themselves by saying that they do charity. They are some of the biggest speculators in the world. They even speculate on charity. That obviously bothers you. Achk! I can't stand it. [Mocking] "Oh, we're doing an eight-course charity dinner." Fuck you! I hope your eight-course dinner is poisoned! You just have to do your work, and while you're doing your work you should be concerned about the quality of your work -- whether you're a plumber or whatever. What other things are on your mind for future work? Religion is something. Media is something. Media is just a bunch of bullshit. Media is the real advertising. And they belong to big companies. There are some newspapers and TV companies that can't talk about certain things because they belong to General Electric or some big gas company. Speaking of religion, you're apparently inspired by medieval religious paintings, paintings where blood and death are much more present and graphic. You walk into a church, it's like walking into a slaughterhouse. There's blood and thorns and hearts in hands. You go to [churches in] Rome and you see incredible blood all over. There is a famous painting of a woman holding her dead child in her arms. What a subject! You can't take a picture of that! Today there's a whole problem about artificial insemination. Well, the Virgin Mary was artificially inseminated. From the very beginning. I mean, think about it. What an incredible idea! Do you still call yourself a radical libertarian? More than that. I'm a total anarchist. I've never been into a bank in my life. I refuse. So how do you manage your money? My wife! The best way to get rid of money is to get married. Anything else you want to say about your views or your recent campaign? I don't know why everybody is so concerned about the business of Benetton. They lost Sears, but they got some incredible letters from people who were angry at Sears for dropping Benetton. Everybody's so concerned about the business, that we might lose clients. I mean what the heck, who cares? I think it's very good that we lost Sears. People are talking about loyalty to our clients. Pft! Read this [he refers to a quote on paper], I think it's great: "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." That's it. That's what we're talking about when we talk about my work.
- - - - - - - - - - - - Table Talk Sound off - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
